By Allan Fox: Tom Loeffler says last Saturday’s fight between WBC super flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (45-4-1, 40 KOs) and Juan Francisco ‘El Gallo’ Estrada (36-3, 25 KOs) deserves a rematch to clear up the controversy and he’s interested in putting together a second fight this fall at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
Rungvisai beat Estrada by a 12 round majority decision by the scores 117-111, 115-113 for Rungvisai and 114-114. The decision was very unpopular with Estrada’s fans had come to see him fight live in large numbers last Saturday. Boxing News saw it as a win for Rungvisai by a 118-110 score. Estrada did well enough to win rounds 2 and 12.
Rungvisai was landing the harder shots in the fight, and the aggressor. Estrada’s defensive style of fighting cost him the fight, as the judges weren’t impressed with his movement. They viewed Rungvisai’s aggressive style as the more effective. Estrada’s needed to let him know ahead of time that he wouldn’t win a fight moving away for 11 of the 12 rounds. He needed to stand and fight, which he failed to do.
“I’ll have to sit down and talk to both sides, but that would the goal — to do a rematch based in the fall based on their outstanding performances tonight,” Loeffler said to ESPN.com.
A second fight at The Forum between Rungvisai and Estrada could very well leave the boxing fans just as unhappy as the first fight. If it goes to a decision and Rungvisai wins again, the Estrada fans, which will greatly outnumber Rungvisai’s fans due to him coming from Thailand, we could see a lot of booing and another cry of robbery. Loeffler is asking for trouble to stage the second fight at the Forum instead of a place where the crowd had at least a slight chance of being split between fans of the two fighters. You can argue that over 90 percent of the boxing fans that attended the fight last Saturday were Estrada’s fans. He was the one receiving cheers whenever he’d land anything. The fans were silent while Rungvisai was repeatedly hitting Estrada with incredibly powerful body and head shots. This went on the entire fight.
“I thought it was very close fight but no complaints about the decision,” Loeffler said. “I thought Sor Rungvisai edged, but a draw would have been fine. This fight warrants a rematch. If there’s a way we can make a rematch for the fall, this is a fight the fans would want to see again. We’d love to bring it back to The Forum.”
Loeffler should ask Rungvisai who he wants to fight next. After all, he’s the champion and this was a mandatory defense he got out of the way. There was no rematch clause in the contract, so it’s up to Rungvisai whether he wants to keep fighting Estrada repeatedly at The Forum in front of his fans. Rungvisai should be able to pick the venue for where he wants to fight. It’s like he’s being put in the same position IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG” Golovkin is with him fighting Saul Canelo Alvarez in a venue that favors him for the second time in a row. Estrada is the challenger, so it’s not a good deal for Rungvisai to be giving him home advantage over and over.
Estrada wasn’t asked if he’d be willing to travel to Thailand to fight Rungvisai in front of his own boxing fans. That would have been a good question to ask him after the fight. Rungvisai says he doesn’t mind fighting Estrada again in Los Angeles. He says he’ll fight him again or anyone else in the 115 lb. division.
“I will fight anybody at 115 pounds, including giving Estrada a rematch if that’s what he wants,” Rungvisai said. “I look forward to fighting in Los Angeles again.”
Estrada should be careful for what he wishes for, because if he gets beaten again, he’s going to have another loss on his record. Estrada will need to think about taking the high road for the rematch by giving Rungvisai credit for his win, and not complaining that he should have been given the decision. In losing once to Rungvisai, Estrada can complain and some fans will sympathize with him, but if he keeps doing it each time he loses, the fans are likely going to brand him as a poor sport who can’t give his opponent credit when he loses.
Rungvisai made $250,000 for the fight with Estrada. Perhaps there will be more money for Rungvisai if he elects to give Loeffler his wish and agree to fight Estrada. I think there are bigger fights for Rungvisai than getting stuck in the rematch cycle with the beaten Estrada. The boxing public would like to see Rungvisai fight Roman Gonzalez again or Jerwin Ancajas or Naoya Inoue. Those would be far more interesting fights for Rungvisai than fighting Estrada again. Estrada made $100,000 for the Rungvisai fight.
“If he wants to give me a rematch I will take it, but I doubt he’ll give it to me,” Estrada said.
Rungvisai already said he would give Estrada a rematch when he was interviewed first last Saturday night. Estrada needs to understand that Rungvisai likely wants to fight the guys that HBO Boxing and Loeffler want him to fight. Right now, it looks like Loeffler is interested in seeing Rungvisai fight Estrada again. HBO will probably go for the idea of televising a second fight between Rungvisai and Estrada. There are not a lot of options for Rungvisai to fight. Carlos Cuadras was beaten by McWilliams Arroyo. Rungvisai would likely destroy Arroyo, as his fighting style is made to order for him.
IBF super flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas’ promoters at Top Rank probably won’t agree to a fight between him and Rungvisai. They’re trying to build Ancajas into a star the easy way without putting him in with risky opponents. Eddie Hearn, the promoter for WBA 115 lb. champion Khalid Yafai, hasn’t expressed the desire to match him against Rungvisai. The sad truth is, none of the champions are interested in fighting Rungvisai. So, that leaves Estrada and Arroyo as the best options for Rungvisai to fight. Cuadras would have been a good opponent for Rungvisai’s next fight, but he was beaten by Arroyo last Saturday night. Cuadras has a win over Rungvisai from 2014 that he’d like to avenge, but I don’ think HBO would like the idea of that fight taking place in the fall given that situation that took place last Saturday night.
Arroyo might be a better option for Rungvisai than Estrada, because the boxing public didn’t see the Rungvisai-Estrada fight as a great robbery like many of the fans did in watching it liver at The Forum in Inglewood. There’s no sense of urgency with the boxing public in seeing Rungvisai fight a guy he just beat for a second time. It might make Estrada and his fans happy, but the rest of the fans don’t see it as a fight that should be made. Whether the Sor Rungvisai vs. Estrada rematch takes place or not will defend on if Loeffler wants to cater to Estrada’s fans rather exclusively and ignore the fans that didn’t see it as a robbery. That’s why it would be better for Loeffler to schedule Rungvisai against someone else, and let Estrada earn the rematch by facing Arroyo. It would please the fans of Rungvisai and Estrada if they gave it a breather before they fought again. As long as Estrada can earn the right to fight Rungvisai again by beating Arroyo, then he should get a second fight under those conditions.