Francisco Estrada vs. Roman Gonzalez 2 Preview

Chocolatito vs. Gallo Should Be Another Classic

It`s taken eight long years to get them back together, so now it`s time for Chocolatito and Gallo to finally prove… who`s the best?

At stake is Roman Gonzalez`s WBA super flyweight belt and Juan Francisco Estrada`s WBC super flyweight belt, and this unification will come to pass at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. It`s to crown a lone star!

Styles make fights. It`ll be a contest determining if Chocolatito can crowd Gallo, trap him on the ropes and punish him with combinations landing that big right hand, or whether Gallo can command the center of the ring and land fast powerful combinations at middle range, punctuating it with big left hooks, plus sinking body shots.

Chocolatito`s Coach Marcos Caballero is talking about honing his man`s long range punches, but in reality the Nicaraguan`s best work is done at toe to toe close quarters. It`s right in close where he`s at his intense best. Medium and long range is much more Gallo`s domain. The other aim is for Chocolatito`s punch output to be very high. Has he still got that energy output capacity?

A lot has happened since Roman defeated Gallo on November 11th 2012. Back then he definitely had the edge in experience, and the weight category of Light flyweight suited him so much better. He was twenty six and Gallo was a callow twenty two. He was a world champion and the youngster wasn`t.

Chocolatito won that fight with a: 118-110, 116-112, 116-112 UD. But it wasn`t anywhere near as comfortable as it all seemed. Chocolatito started slow and Gallo caught him with a lot of crisp combinations. Chocolatito warmed to his task, cut the distance and once he`d got Gallo`s back against the ropes he went to town with some heavy handed combinations, which proved decisive.

He had his younger less experienced opponent teetering on trouble several times. Gallo fought back bravely and intelligently, courting away from potential disaster, but it wasn`t enough to turn the tide of punch clusters. Coming down a weight division for this keen match, hadn`t ideally suited him. He looked thin, rather than lean.

The question which looms in the next fight for the winner of this rematch, is rugged Thai Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, who agreed to temporarily step aside for this one, in the clear understanding that whoever wins will then fight him. A daunting prospect, especially physically.

Gallo fought him and lost first time around, getting outmuscled and outhustled. But then, he appreciably upped, refined and defined his performance, superbly out boxing the mauling southpaw. Ring generalship at its finest.

On the other hand, Srisaket has proved little short of a disaster by inflicting two epic Roman defeats. The Thai put him down with a body shot in the first round of their first encounter and went on to win a MD. But then in the rematch…disaster struck, with a knockdown and then a frightful and frightening KO, all in the fourth.

It speaks volumes about Roman Gonzalez that he`s regrouped from a disaster, which would surely have career wise cracked, crumbled, humbled and destroyed a lesser man. Yet the question is, if it`s forever taken something out of him and taken something away from him which will never return? If he defeats Gallo, will it be third time lucky against his only conqueror, reversing the nemesis curse?

Chocolatito has built a record of 50-2, with 41 KO`s. He has won world titles in four different weight categories, even surpassing his idol Alexis Arguello. Challenge after challenge set and gloriously met.

What a KO to defeat Kai Yafai, to become WBA champion! That obliterating right hand cannon finish in round nine, after knocking him down a round earlier. Then, a somewhat lethargic, effective yet puzzling and uninspired performance against spirited youngster Israel Gonzalez at TV Azteca. Was Chocolatito`s ambition camouflaged?

On that same night some place, same ring, Gallo stopped Carlos Cuadras, but not before being badly decked by a double left hook in the third and so near to grief, before overwhelming Carlos in the eleventh, after a gruelling, sapping marathon, with two knockdowns of his own.

The photo of Chocolatito and Gallo afterwards was strikingly significant. Two different visages. The Nicaraguan`s handsome face mostly unmarked… and somewhat pensive, with a faraway look?

The Mexican`s face battered, after he`d bettered, by digging so deep to come through the ordeal of give and take hell fire.

Gallo has fought forty four times, twenty eight of his victories by KO and three lost. Aged thirty he`s three years younger than Chocolatito, and until the Cuadras war, he appeared to be the fresher. Super flyweight is more naturally his weight. Size and strength wise, it surely favors him more than the Nicaraguan. But you can never discard Chocolatito. Do so at your peril!

In interviews leading up to this fight, Chocolatito has seemed distracted, indolent, propped up on pillows and even weary. Is that due to the intensity of his preparation, is he pulling the wool over our eyes or is he contemplating retirement after a pro career which is entering its sixteenth year?

Both men have the spirit, grit and winning determination of champions imprinted in their DNA. Both will draw upon experience, use cunning, intelligence and savvy, to fashion, direct and burnish this into a great fight. A sure-fire candidate for Fight of the Year. It`ll involve brilliance and wonderment.

Not one to miss!

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