By Dan Ambrose: WBA/WBC super flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada has decided to head straight into a massive trilogy fight against Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez in September or October instead of facing WBA ‘regular’115-lb champion Joshua Franco on July 16th.
Levi Luna is reporting the news of Estrada choosing to jump straight into the trilogy match with Roman Gonzalez rather than face Franco.
The rematch needs to be staged where Chocolatito, who comes from Nicaragua, has a better chance of winning a decision if the fight goes to the scorecards.
As we saw last year in Juan Estrada’s highly questionable win over Chocolatito in March 2021 in Dallas, Texas, Roman may be up against it in facing the famous Mexican star in that state.
Last year, Estrada’s highly controversial win over Chocolatito was eerily similar to Canelo Alvarez’s controversial wins over Gennady Golovkin, Erislandy Lara, and Austin Trout.
The judges scored the fight 117-111, 115-113 for Estrada, and 115-113 for Chocolatito. Boxing fans ridiculed the 117-111 score turned in by judge CarlosSucre in favor of Estrada. Boxing News 24 had Chocolatito winning 116-112.
It makes a lot of sense for ‘El Gallo’ Estrada (42-3, 28 KOs) to take the bigger fight against former four-division world champion Chocolatito Gonzalez (51-3 43 KOs) next rather than face WBA secondary super flyweight champion Joshua Franco (18-1-2, 8 KOs).
As good as Franco is, he’s not a household name in the U.S, and his fighting style is far less entertaining than Chocolatito. Like his brother Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, Franco is a pure boxer who lacks power and wins fights by being slick at the expense of excitement.
You can’t blame Estrada for choosing not to fight Franco because the 26-year-old will be looking to outbox him for the entire fight, and it would come down to which style the judges prefer. Either the amateur fencing style of Joshua Franco or the entertaining professional style of Estrada.
Depending on the judge’s preference, Estrada could have lost that fight because he’s not young enough to chase Franco around the ring for 12 rounds, trying to get close enough to connect.
“Multiple sources: Juan Francisco “Gallo” Estrada will NOT fight Joshua Franco on July 16. The Sonoran will go directly for the trilogy against the Nicaraguan legend Chocolatito in September/October,” said Levin Luna on Twitter.
The former four-division world champion Chocolatito, 34, is coming off a one-sided 12round unanimous decision over Julio Cesar Martinez last March.
Going into that fight, some boxing fans felt that the 27-year-old Rey Martinez (18-2-2, 14 KOs) would have too much youth and power for Chocolatito, but they were wrong. Chocolatito took Martinez to school in winning an easy 12round decision.
