Negotiations have begun for a trilogy match between Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez for November or December.
They were going to fight in March, but COVID 19 issues prevented the match from take place because Estrada couldn’t train.
ESPNmx is reporting the news of the talks between WBA/WBC Franchise super flyweight champion Estrada (42-3, 28 KOs) and the former four-division world champion Chocolatito (51-3, 41 KOs).
Estrada, 32, was supposed to be fighting WBA ‘regular’ champion Joshua Franco next, but those plans have changed. The Chocolatito trilogy match is the far bigger match for Estrada, who has been inactive for the last 15 months.
Estrada’s original plans were to fight Joshua Estrada, the older brother of WBC 115-lb champion Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, on August 20th. They had planned to fight on July 16th, but the match got pushed to August 20th.
Chocolatito is coming off an impressive 12-round decision victory over Julio Cesar Martinez last March in San Diego. The fight was supposed to be competitive, but Chocolatito had too many technical skills & size for the slugger Rey Martinez.
“The long-awaited third battle between Mexican Juan Francisco ‘Gallo’ Estrada and Nicaraguan Román ‘Chocolatito’ González could come sooner than expected, as close sources revealed to ESPN Knockout that it is very likely that the Sonoran will not face Joshua Franco in the coming weeks, with his sights set on the trilogy with the four-time world champion for November or December,” said Salvador Rodriguez to ESPNmx.
Estrada might be forced to give up his WBA title if he faces Chocolatito, but that’s likely not a big deal. Win or lose, he always can come back and fight for the WBA belt, as the division is barren of name fighters, especially now that Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Carlos Cuadras got old.
Last year, Estrada beat Chocolatito by a highly questionable 12-round split decision in March in Dallas, Texas. One judge had the fight scored wide for Estrada 117-111 and was highly criticized.
The other judges scored it 115-113 for Estrada and 115-113 for Chocolatito. Many boxing fans had Chocolatito winning 8-4 and 9-3. Estrada looked just as overmatched against Chocolatito as he was in their first fight in 2012.
Hopefully, the judges don’t ruin the trilogy like they did the second fight between Estrada and Chocolatito. To avoid that from happening, it would be wise to stage the trilogy match in a neutral venue where
Estrada isn’t going to have the crowd on his side as he did in Dallas, Texas. Placing the trilogy on the East Coast in the New York area might be the answer because the last thing fans need is another controversial decision involving these two.
If the negotiations fail to produce a fight, it’s possible we could see Chocolatito challenge for a world title against WBC super flyweight champion Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez.
