By Bart Barry-
Saturday on DAZN in maskless Dallas a match genuinely anticipated by our sport’s genuine aficionados happens for The Ring’s 115-pound championship. Mexican “El Gallo” Juan Francisco Estrada defends his championship against Nicaraguan Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, The Ring’s number-two super flyweight and former owner of the division (along with flyweight, light flyweight and minimumweight).
If Estrada snatches the initiative from opening bell, seizes it, and refuses to relent, he wins. Chocolatito is no longer the hunter he was more than eight years ago, and in their first fight he was well neutralized by Estrada. Go back and watch (if only for the dulcet tones of our own Marc Abrams’ commentary). The scores can’t be believed, especially the lopsided one, but Estrada’s reaction can be.
After a nigh-hellacious 12th round, when the final clang came, Estrada and his corner very much believed Estrada the victor. But for round 6, they had a claim on most every round of the 12. No more of a claim than Chocolatito, the champion, mind you, but a claim. Round 6 saw Chocolatito take the initiative from Estrada with body punching. Chocolatito caught Gallo with a threepair of hooks deep, and it took Estrada the rest of the round to round-up his composure and breath.
But there was no spinning Estrada. Chocolatito, at his best, spun his opponents, something like the way Manny Pacquiao did, and the sooner he spun you the quicker he owned you. He didn’t spin Estrada hardly a bit. Gallo knew what was what against Chocolatito, and fighting before a pleasantly raucous crown in Los Angeles, he knew what his countrymen demanded a prizefighter. It was a fully professional showing by a man not even ranked in the WBA’s top 10 light flyweights at the time.
There’s an argument Estrada is undefeated since that night in 2012 though not a terribly strong one. Rat King got him in their first match three years ago but not by much. Gallo avenged that defeat properly in their rematch 14 months later. How hard is it to better Rat King in a rematch? Chocolatito still doesn’t know because he didn’t get close enough to measure for an estimate.
Since Sor Rungvisai stamped an exclamation mark on Chocolatito’s chest in 2017 our Nicaraguan hero has been on a farewell tour of sorts, or so we suspected till Chocolatito took the WBA’s super fly belt from Khalid Yafai a year ago. If Yafai was not in Chocolatito’s class it was because very few are; Yafai was pretty well accustomed to successful title defenses when he came to Texas and got beat-up by a legend washed-up. It was a small vindication for Chocolatito, disproving theorists who said 115 pounds were too big and young for him after Rat King. A small vindication because Chocolatito appears about the least-vindictive of all alltime talents in our beloved sport’s history. Those wrongheaded theorists who begged Chocolatito to retire after Carson, Calif., anyway did it out of love, not scorn.
Chocolatito made a rare co-main appearance in October, outclassing a gangly Mexican youngster nicknamed Jiga just before Gallo made that wonderful match with his countryman Carlos Cuadras. The postcard festivities had a redemption-earned feel to them. Gallo would finally be granted his long-sought rematch with Chocolatito because he deserved it. The way a child gets dessert for finishing veggies.
One gets the sense Chocolatito would like to make some more money and Gallo is the best available wage but could take or leave whatever belts are in the offing because he’s had them before and probably doesn’t want the inevitable demand for a rubber match with the rubberizing Rat King, who has Chocolatito’s number then and now and forever. Saturday’s match is for Gallo and longsuffering aficionados like us. However uneager Chocolatito may be for a test stiff as Estrada, once the bell rings there’s no one doubting the way Chocolatito will comport himself.
I can’t help feeling a bit about this match the way I felt before the third match between Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera. That match was very much about Morales’ vindication. After probably not beating Barrera in their first match and probably not losing to him in their second, Morales, on a six-fight streak and fully migrated to 130 pounds, got his third match with Barrera like a dessert plate. Barrera, gone through by Pacquiao like wet tissue paper, was believed a very much reduced version of the guy who’d fought El Terrible for 12 rounds at 122 pounds and 12 more at 126. Morales barely made their new weight for the rubber match and held his right hand cocked high to signal for all it was Barrera’s consciousness he wanted. Then Barrera broke Morales’ nose with an uppercut and did not return to Morales the initiative.
If Estrada headhunts Saturday in pursuit of a knockout and legacy he may well get his nose broke, too. If Estrada enters the fight cautiously, looking to outbox the Nicaraguan master, he may never get into a gear high enough to do so. Estrada has a direct path to beating Chocolatito, but it is not a wide path.
Certainly Chocolatito believes he is Estrada’s superior. Soon as Chocolatito realizes he is trading punches with the man who across 24 rounds unmanned Srisaket Sor Rungvisai he is likely to relent enough for Estrada to have his vindication. Dragging Chocolatito to that realization is everything Gallo must do.
I believe he will. I’ll take Estrada, KO-11.
Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter @bartbarry
