This Saturday night in Glendale, Arizona, Roman Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada will box their highly anticipated rubber-match. These two superb warriors, both future Hall of Famers, have fought to two highly competitive, action-packed 12 round decisions, and on Saturday it will be, as many have said, round 25!
Chocolatito as Nicaraguan idol Gonzalez is known, won the first fight, this back in 2012, the first battle seeing Gonzalez retain his light flyweight title by way of a unanimous decision triumph. Then, in the sequel that took place in March of last year, up at super flyweight, Mexican hero Estrada avenged his loss to Gonzalez, capturing a split decision. Now we are set to see who wins the thrilling rivalry.
35 year old Gonzalez is now 51-3(41), while 32 year old Estrada is currently 43-3(28). The rubber-match will have the Ring Magazine and vacant WBC super flyweight titles on the line.
So who wins the decider?
As is always the case when a big fight looms, the folks at Ring Magazine have put up a poll of experts via their web site. The results of this particular poll might surprise fans, as all but three of the experts taking part are picking Gonzalez to win. To some, Saturday’s fight is pretty much a pick ’em affair, or certainly a close fight. Yet of the 21 boxing experts picked, only three are going with Estrada.
The three experts picking Estrada are: trainer Marc Ramsay, who is going for Estrada by unanimous decision victory, UK commentator Alex Steadman, who is picking Estrada by points, and matchmaker Eric Bottjer, who is also going Estrada by points.
Of the remaining 18 experts, all but one feel Gonzalez will win a decision, with trainer Rudy Hernandez picking Chocolatito Gonzalez by TKO victory.
There does seem to be a great chance Saturday’s fight once again goes all 12 rounds, just as there is every chance the third war between Gonzalez and Estrada will be just that – a war. A great fight is expected by all, no matter who you think wins. It’s the final month of the year, so it could turn out that we were made to wait quite some time for 2022’s FOTY.
Pick: Estrada by close decision.