(Photo credit: Hogan Photos) By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten WBC flyweight champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (43-0, 37 KOs) has reportedly been added to the undercard of the October 17th fight card headlined by WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin vs. IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux on HBO pay-per-view from Madison Square Garden in New York.
Gonzalez’s opponent isn’t yet known at this time. The options aren’t that great though. The fighters that they’re looking at to pick Gonzalez’s opponent for the card is 33-year-old former light flyweight champion Giovani Segura (32-4-1, 28 KOs) and McWilliams Arroyo (16-2, 14 KOs). Brian Viloria had said to be interested in the fight, but he’s not the one that they’re looking at for this fight.
At one time, Segura was a very good fighter years ago, but he’s had too many wars and he’s up there in age now. If you’ve followed his career, you’ll note that he’s now getting beat and nowhere near the fighter that he was years ago. It’s not a good thing that Segura was beaten in his last fight by Juan Francisco Estrada in losing an 11th round knockout.
I suppose that casual boxing fans won’t have any idea about Segura having lost his last fight and not being in his prime any longer. The fans will just want to see Roman Gonzalez beat up on someone, and Segura will serve the purpose for that. But you’d like to see Gonzalez get an upgrade over his recent opponent Edgar Sosa, and that’s not going to be the case if Segura gets selected.
Arroyo is the brother of McJoe Arroyo, who recently won a controversial 10 round technical decision victory over Arthur Villanueva on July 18th of this month in El Paso, Texas. Arroyo did little more than clinch all night long and many boxing fans felt that he didn’t do enough to deserve the victory.
If McWilliams Arroyo is anything like his brother McJoe Arroyo, then having Gonzalez face him on the Golovkin-Lemieux card will be a total waste of life unless the referee has the jaws of life cutting tool to remove Arroyo from his constant clinches. That would really ugly the fight up if Arroyo grabs Gonzalez all night long. The only thing good about the fight would be that Gonzalez would have the punching power to end the clinching by knocking Arroyo out when he tries to grab him.
Having Roman Gonzalez on the undercard of Golovkin-Lemieux is a good thing, but having him fight guys that have no chance like Segura or Arroyla isn’t alright. It’s hardly even worth having Gonzalez on the card if they’re going to drag out a fighter who was recently knocked out in his last fight like Segura. It would be better to match Gonzalez up with the guy that knocked Segura out in putting him back in with Juan Francisco Estrada, a fighter that Gonzalez beat by a close 12 round decision three years ago.
“The date and place are confirmed. We will be fighting Oct. 17 in MSG,” Gonzalez’s manager Carlos Blandon said to ESPN.com.
Arroyo was recently beaten by Amnat Ruenroeng. It would be more interesting to see Roman Gonzalez fight the guy that beat Arroyo than to fight Arroyo. Unless he’s going to give a handicap to Arroyo or Segura, the fight will be a mismatch and hardly worth watching. The idea behind putting Arroyo on the card is he’s Puerto Rican, says Blandon. There’s a large Puerto Rican community in New York that might want to turn up and see the fight live at Madison Square Garden in order to see Arroyo face a dangerous puncher like Roman Gonzalez. It’s not a great fight for the other boxing fans who want to see Gonzalez fight someone that is competitive with him, but it will likely help sell tickets if Arroyo gets selected. I just hope he doesn’t clinch all night long like his brother recently did in his fight.
“If Viloria’s (team) makes an interesting offer to the promoter then they can jump in the race before we make up our minds,” Blandon said.
Vioria would be by far the best option for Gonzalez unless they want to bring Estrada in for the fight, but I doubt that.
Also on the undercard will be undefeated #7 WBO, #11 WBA, #15 IBF heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz (22-0, 19 KOs) against possibly former world title challenger #5 WBC, #6 WBA, #9 IBF Bryant Jennings (19-1, 10 KOs). The Jennings vs. Ortiz fight is still in the negotiating phase so it’s not a given that this fight will take place. This is actually a good fight and much better than the slop that we might see between Roman Gonzalez and a way past his best Segura. Ortiz, 6’4”, has a ton of punching power in both hands, and he’s a young 36. He’s not someone that has a lot of ring miles on him.
Jennings recently lost a 12 round unanimous decision to IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko last April. Jennings made Wladimir work hard for his win and look bad.
Comments are closed.