By Jeff Henninger: Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez wasn’t in agreement with accepting defeat in his rematch with Juan Francisco Estrada in losing a 12 round split decision at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
Although was given a questionable victory by two of the judges that worked the fight, Chocolatito (50-3, 41 KOs) let the fans know that he’s now 2-0 against Estrada, as far as he’s concerned.
Moments after the fight results were announced, giving the victory to WBA super flyweight champion Estrada (42-3, 28 KOs), a smiling Gonzalez said, “I won both of them.”
Apparently, the ringside crowd at agreed with Gonzalez, as they cheered him after he commented, believing that’s he’s beaten Estrada twice now.
The two judges that scored it for Estrada had him winning by these scores:
- 117-111 [Judge: Carlos Sucre]
- 115-113 [David Sutherland]
The judge [Jesse Reyes] that scored it for Chocolatito had him winning 115-113, which made sense given how the fight played out.
It’s sad how one oddball score from a judge that sees something completely different from the fans can ruin a fight, as we saw with the 117-111 score turned in by Carlos Sucre. That score is frankly unbelievable given how close and competitive the fight was.
When you score a fight that wide, it suggests that it’s a one-sided match, and that’s not what we saw last Saturday night with Chocolatito throwing and landing more shots than Estrada.
Chocolatito is on board with a trilogy match
“Whatever he wants, we’ll do it,” said Gonzalez about Estrada.
The third fight between them will need to be staged in a different location rather than Texas so that the boxing public doesn’t see it as the deck being stacked against Chocolatito.
Just so that the fans have peace of mind, it would be an excellent idea to stage the third Chocolatito vs. Estrada fight in Florida or New York than Texas, California, or Nevada.
Those are states that you can argue that Estrada would have crowd heavily on his side to the point where Chocolatito would be all by himself with just him and his team.
Gonzalez vs. Estrada was clearly the #1 fight that has taken place this year, bar none.
Fans saw Chocolatito winning
Going into the match there was a massive amount of fan interest from the boxing public, and they weren’t disappointed with what they saw inside the ring from the two 115-lb warriors.
Estrada, 30, came into the fight wanting to avenge his 12 round unanimous decision loss at the hands of Chocolatito from 2012, and he accomplished that goal, albeit by a controversial decision.
Unfortunately for Estrada, the boxing world saw the former four-division Chocolatito winning the fight, and that’s not bias on their part. Chocolatito fought the better fight and appeared in control through the entire second half.
Fans see Estrada as the illegitimate winner, and that’s too bad because could have been his moment to shine under the bright lights. Instead, Estrada goes home with a controversial decision with many boxing fans seeing him as being given a gift victory.
It’s fair to say that Chocolatito fought well enough to win 5 of the first 6 rounds of the contest. Estrada landed the better shots in round 1. But Chocolatito landed the better shots and was more active in outworking Estrada in rounds 2 through 6.
Estrada fought well in the middle rounds, 7 and 8, but then was outclassed by Chocolatito in rounds 9, 10, 11, and 12. You can make a case that Chocolatito should have won the fight by a 117-111 score.
That shows you how far off the two judges were that scored the fight for Estrada. They were marginalized by the fans, who saw it as another definitive win for Chocolatito, just as clearcut as the first fight between the two in 2012.
Where Chocolatito may have gone wrong was agreeing to the venue for the fight. He should have insisted on taking the match to Florida or New York
In capturing the WBC super flyweight title from Roman, Estrada will now need to defend the belt against mandatory Srisakt Sor Rungvisai, who was obviously watching the fight last Saturday night.
It’s not a given that Estrada will beat Rungvisai. I mean, he already lost to the Thai fighter once in 2018, and he can close to losing the rematch in 2019. Rungvisai landed the heavier and cleaner shots against Estrada, but the judges gave it to the popular Mexican star.
In the trilogy fight, Rungvisai will have a good chance of beating Estada if the match is staged in a neutral venue.