WBC super flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (43-4-1, 39 KOs) and Juan Francisco Estrada (36-2, 25 KOs) will meet up in SuperFly2 card on February 24 at the Forum in Inglewood, California. The fight will be shown on HBO Boxing.
K2 promoter Tom Loeffler announced the Rungvisai vs. Estrada fight on Saturday. There was a lot of speculation earlier in the day that Loeffler would announce the rematch between Gennady Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez when he told his social audience that he had a big announcement to make. But it turned out to be the Rungvisai vs. Estrada fight for February 24, which the boxing fans already knew was taking place on that date. It was kind of an anticlimactic announcement by Loeffler.
Estrada and Rungvisai previously shared the same card recently at ‘SuperFly’ in fighting on September 9. Rungvisai destroyed Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez in 4 rounds, and Estrada edged former WBC super flyweight champion Carlos Cuadras by a razor thin 12 round unanimous decision in a World Boxing Council 115 lb. title eliminator. Now with Roman Gonzalez out of the picture, Rungvisai, 30, will meet up with former two-time flyweight champion Estrada, 27, in 2 months from now on February 24.
“It’s very exciting to announce the main event for the second installment of our ‘Superfly’ series,” Loeffler said to ESPN.com.
Rungvisai is fighting at a very high level at this point in his career after losing a disappointing 8th round technical decision to Carlos Cuadras in 2013. That was a fight that was cut short due to Cuadras suffering a cut from a head clash. Rungvisai looks like the guy to beat in the super featherweight division right now, although some boxing fans believe WBO champion Naoya Inoue is the best fighter in this weight class. Inoue is going to need to prove it by facing better opposition than the guys he’s been padding his record with.
Rungvisai took advantage of Roman Gonzalez giving him a title shot earlier this year on March 18 in beating him by 12 round majority decision at Madison Square Garden in New York. Some boxing thought Gonzalez did enough to win the fight, but his chances of winning were hurt by him getting knocked down with a body shot in round 1, and out-boxed in the championship rounds by Rungvisai. Personally, I don’t think it was a controversial decision at all. Rungvisai was the better fighter on the night than Gonzalez, and he proved it once again in the rematch last September.
“Srisaket Sor Rungvisai had a remarkable year in 2017, upsetting ‘Chocolatito’ and defeating him again in his first defense,” Loeffler said. “Juan Francisco Estrada…is very anxious to challenge for a world title against Sor Rungvisai.”
Naoya Inoue is expected to be on the undercard of Rungvisai vs. Estrada if he wins his December 30th fight against Yoan Boyeaux (41-4, 26 KOs).