By Jim Calfa: Former four-division world champion Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez will be taking on WBA super flyweight champion Juan ‘Gallo’ Estrada in a trilogy match three months from now on March 5th in San Diego, California.
Hopefully, quality judges work the Chocolatito vs. Estrada III trilogy match because the last thing boxing fans need is a repeat of the previous fight between them.
The two fighters are 1-1 after their controversial recent clash last March at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
Although Chocolatito (50-3, 41 KOs) appeared to win a clear decision by a 116-112 score, two judges gave it to Estrada, and one of them had it wide, giving him nine rounds to three.
As long as the judges pick the right guy in the trilogy match, there won’t be a problem, but it could be bad if we see a repeat of the oddball scoring from the second Chocolatito vs. Estrada fight last March.
That outcome left a bad taste in the mouths of boxing fans, considering they overwhelmingly had Chocolatito winning, but it was another example of judges seeing a fight differently from the masses.
The judge that scored it 117-111 for Estrada had the fans hopping mad, as they saw that score as from outer space.
Estrada’s win was VERY questionable
That was a fight in which the 31-year-old Estrada was given a very, very questionable 12 round split decision victory over the Nicaraguan ‘Chocolatito,’ the fans that had been initially on Estrada’s side booed heavily when the results were announced.
The judges scored the Chocolatito – Estrada rematch as follows:
- 115-113 – Estrada
- 117-111 – Estrada
- 115-113 – Chocolatito
Boxing News 24 had Chocolatito winning eight rounds to four [116-112], and there was no question that he was the better fighter of the two.
In truth, Roman, 34. appeared to win in an even more decisive manner over Estrada than he had in their first fight in November 2012 at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California.
Chocolatito won that fight by 118-110, 116-112, and 116-112. There was a lot of grumbling from boxing fans after the contest for many months, who felt that Estrada had done enough to deserve the win or at the very least a draw.
Like in their last fight in March, Chocolatito’s nonstop combination punching was too much for Estrada, who couldn’t match Roman’s prolific output.
San Diego NOT the ideal location
Placing the Roman Gonzalez vs. Juan Estrada trilogy match in Southern California could be asking for trouble because the crowd will almost surely be pro-Estrada.
From the promoter’s perspective, you can understand why they wanted to place the Chocolatito vs. Estrada 3 fight in Southern California in San Diego. Having the contest take place in that location ensures a large sellout crowd for the fight.
It makes sense in terms of business, but it’s potentially bad for Chocolatito, whose Nicaraguan fanbase will be significantly outnumbered by Estrada’s large fanbase.
Suppose the judges who work the fight are unconsciously getting their cues from the boxing fans attending the Gonzalez-Estrada fight in San Diego, as some believe happened in their rematch last March in Dallas, Texas.
It may prove impossible for Chocolatito to win a decision. Obviously, it won’t be a big deal if Roman scores a knockout of Estrada, but that’s unlikely to happen.
Estrada can take a good shot, and he’s used a lot of movement in his two fights with Chocolatito because he couldn’t match his machine gun-like punch output.
Ideally, the trilogy match between Estrada and Roman should be in a neutral state in which neither fighter has a considerable following.
New York or Connecticut would be perfect because neither of these two fighter’s fan bases would be nearby in massive numbers.