By Sean Jones: Promoter Eddie Hearn is negotiating a deal for a trilogy match between WBA/WBC super flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez for October 16th on DAZN in Los Angeles or Phoenix.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn believes he can have the Chocolatito vs. Estrada III fight done by next week, according to Mike Coppinger. Estrada’s two super flyweight titles will be on the line for the contest.
The former four-division world champion Chocolatito (50-3, 41 KOs) was the victim of a robbery the last time he fought Estrada in Dallas, Texas last March.
Of those two cities, it’s unclear which one would be more of neutral territory. The last time they fought in Dallas, Chocolatito basically had the entire crowd against him with the audience filled with pro-Estrada boxing fans.
Interestingly, by the end of the fight, Chocolatito had the crowd literally eating out of the palm of his hand as they cheered him loudly while booing Estrada for receiving a gift decision.
That is probably the worst scored fight this writer has ever seen before. It’s as if two of the judges scored the fight with their eyes closed, reacting to the crowd noise rather than what was taking place inside the ring, which was Roman beating the stuffing out of Estrada worse than he did in their first fight in 2012.
- 115-113 – Estrada
- 117-111 – Estrada – WOW
- 115-113 – Chocolatito
It wasn’t even close. Chocolatito was so much better than Estrada was embarrassing at the end when the two oddball scores were announced.
Chocolatito got the better of Estrada and appeared to win eight rounds to four in the eyes of many boxing fans only find himself on the receiving end of a controversial decision in Texas.
The Nicaragua native Chocolatito put himself in a position where might get the shaft by agreeing to fight Estrada in Texas, which is where the Mexican star has a HUGE fan base in the state and in nearby Mexico.
“When you talk about great rivalries over the years, this is right up there,” Matchroom boss man Hearn said to ESPN. “Fight 1 was a classic, and Fight 2 was probably the best I have ever seen live. The decider will be historic — hopefully it gets over the line soon.”
Hearn isn’t mentioning the controversial results. I wonder why?
In terms of action, the second Chocolatito vs. Estrada fight was superb last March, but then it was ruined when the results were announced for the robbery.
That tainted the whole thing, and it didn’t help Estrada because he was booed by his own fans and widely seen as the loser of the fight.
According to ESPN, Chocolatito and Estrada wound up throwing 2,529 punches in the fight. Most of them were from Chocolatito, who was like a machine gun with the way he was throwing over 100 punches per round and making it tough on Estrada.
Juan Franciso was supposed to defend against his WBC mandatory Srisaket Sor Rungvisai but it looks like the World Boxing Council are going to let him face Chocolatito again, which is good for the fans.