In what is great news for fight fans, it looks extremely likely super-flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai will meet Roman Gonzalez, the man he dethroned in a big upset in March, in a return bout this September 9. According to Tom Loeffler, who spoke with RingTV.com, the venue is still to be confirmed but Sep 9 is the likely date.
Certainly one of the fights of the year thus far, the 12 rounder was crammed full of action, blood and guts and sheer drama. Gonzalez as we know was 46-0 upon entering the fight, but the tough (and rough, even dirty, with his head mostly) Thai fighter who was a whopping great underdog, dropped “Chocolatito” early on and got the better of a number of the furious exchanges.
Now slated to do it all again, it’s likely both warriors will be happy: Gonzalez because he now has a shot at avenging his sole pro defeat, Rungvisai because the southpaw with the 43-4-1(39) record will possibly receive the biggest and best payday of his career. Will we see as special a fight in the return? Can Gonzalez turn the tables? Could we even see a trilogy?
Another good question is, is Gonzalez – a superb fighting machine who had won world titles down at minimumweight, light-flyweight and flyweight – just too small to be fighting at super-flyweight? In the past, Gonzalez’ best punches proved extremely hurtful for his opponents – a staggering 38 of them being stopped or knocked out – but these same shots appeared to merely bounce off the rugged Thai.
Still, the March rumble was mighty close at the end and it could have gone either way. Don’t rule out a revenge decision win for Gonzalez. And don’t rule out boxing’s next great trilogy either. And as epic as the first fight was, and as much attention as the sequel will justifiably get, the rematch could well be the main event of the night, not a fight that has to be content with a supporting role.
2017 has already given us some great fights, and with this rematch, along with the Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev return just days away, and the IBF just announcing how they will allow their heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua to go into his return with Wladimir Klitschko, thus making mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev wait (the IBF doing something for AJ the organisation would not do for Tyson Fury back in November of 2015) things could get even more exciting here in 2017.
We might even see a Tony Bellew-David Haye rematch this year.