Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez (51-3, 41 KOs) showed that there are levels to the sport in dominating an overmatched Julio Cesar Martinez (18-2, 14 Kos) in winning a 12 round unanimous decision to capture the WBC Diamond super flyweight title on Saturday night at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California.
The difference in skills and talent between the two fighters was enormous and way too much for Martinez to have any chance of winning.
Chocolatito made it look effortlessly. This writer is in awe of how impressive Chocolatito looked tonight with the way he easily beat a high-quality fighter in Martinez.
In the 11th and 12th round, Chocolatito hit the badly fatigued 27-year-old Martinez at will with shots, and he looked close to being stopped numerous times.
Just when Martinez appeared ready to be stopped, he banged his gloves together and encouraged Chocolatito to keep attacking. That’s something that Martinez didn’t need to do because Chocolatito was attacking relentlessly, throwing nonstop punches.
In the end, Chocolatito had thrown well over 1000+ punches and landed over 300+. Roman’s volume and accuracy proved to be too much for Rey Martinez.
DAZN commentators felt that Martinez’s performance may have impacted his weight issues, as he had come in overweight at Friday’s weigh-in.
Martinez sure looked drained and nothing like the fighter who fought McWilliams Arroyo last November.
The scores:
- 118-110
- 117-111
- 116-112
Rey Martinez came into the fight with the idea of outslugging the former four-division world champion Chocolatito, which in hindsight was a terrible idea. Chocolatito’s punch volume was way too much for Martinez, and the fight got out of hand almost immediately.
“I’m thankful to God because he gave me another day with a victory,” said Chocolatito after the fight. “We still don’t know when I’m going to retire. Maybe a few more fights.
“I came in really good condition for this fight,” said Chocolatito. “That’s why I’m here because of this marvelous crowd. I wanted to feel his power first, and I wanted to work with him little by little, and that’s what I did,” said Roman Gonzalez on his desire to see what Julio Cesar Martinez had early on.
“My corner told me not to give him any rounds. When I thought that I had him, that’s when I started to pressure him more, and that’s what I did.
“He’s very courageous; he can take a lot of punishment. I was really surprised because that indicates he came in really great condition,” said Chocolatito when asked how surprised he was that Rey Martinez went the full 12 rounds.
The main event from a different angle 🎥#ChocolatitoMartinez #DAZNRingside pic.twitter.com/R9RqGo7HmX
— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) March 6, 2022
Martinez, who holds the WBC flyweight title, agreed to come up in weight to face Roman Gonzalez after his originally scheduled opponent Juan Francisco Estrada pulled out of the fight several weeks ago due to COVID-19 illness that he’s recently gotten over.
Chocolatito dominated the fight from the first round with his pressure and combination punching. Martinez fought well enough to win occasional rounds, but he couldn’t put them together because he was getting battered.
By the 10th round, the fight had gotten entirely out of hand with Roman battering the exhausted and hurt Rey Martinez at will with shots.
It would have been a good idea for Martinez’s famous trainer Eddy Reynoso to throw in the towel at that point because he was soaking up punishment from Chocolatito and didn’t have a chance of stopping him.
Martinez’s defense, which had never been good in the fight, had completely failed him by the championship rounds.
Canelo Alvarez shouted encouragement from the crowd, but there was nothing he could say or do to will Rey Martinez to victory. He was out of his depth entirely against Chocolatito. It didn’t matter what Canelo or Reynoso told Martinez. He wasn’t going to beat the highly skilled Chocolatito with his crude skills.