Juan Francisco Estrada edges Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez to unify junior bantamweight titles
Who says sequels can't top the original?
It did Saturday night when Juan Francisco Estrada defeated Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez by split decision in an extremely close Fight of the Year quality bout at American Airlines Arena in Dallas to win the WBA, WBC, and The Ring magazine junior bantamweight titles.
Eight years after their first action-packed bout won by Gonzalez (50-3, 41 KOs), Estrada (42-3, 28 KOs) exacted his revenge in a bout that could have gone either way. The two combined for 2,529 punches -- a junior bantamweight record, according to CompuBox. They combined for 2,133 punches in their first bout.
The scorecards Saturday night read 115-113 Gonzalez, 117-111 Estrada and 115-113 Estrada. The 117-111 was shockingly wide, but the two 115-113 scores were representative of a fight with two warriors putting on a non-stop show.
Immediately after the fight, sensing there was unfinished business with their rivalry split at 1-1, Estrada called for a trilogy third fight to settle it all.
"I think I did enough to win. Chocolatito is a great fighter and I think he deserves a trilogy," Estrada said on the DAZN broadcast afterwards. "I knew it was a close fight. I didn't know if I was up or down but I knew I had to close out the fight in the last two rounds."
Gonzalez was gracious and emotional in defeat saying, "whatever happened, happened but I gave it a great fight." The four-division champion said the result was what "God wanted" and he would welcome a third bout with Estrada.
"It was a better fight than the first one," Estrada said. "I felt strong and I felt like I won. In the last round, I gave it all. It was a great round."
It could be the start of a set of trilogies. Estrada noted after the fight his mandatory challenger is Srisaket Sor Rungvisai -- a man he also has split two wars with over the last few years. Rungvisai won the first bout by majority decision in February 2018 with Estrada winning the rematch by unanimous decision in April 2019.
Rungvisai, who also has two wins over Gonzalez, stepped aside to let Estrada-Gonzalez 2 happen. Now he'll likely want his shot at settling the trilogy with Estrada.
Gonzalez, who despite starting a bit slow was the aggressor for much of the fight, had the advantage over Estrada in every CompuBox category Saturday night except body-punching (89-31 Estrada). The 90 power punches landed in Round 12 (51 by Gonzalez, 39 by Estrada) is a single round junior bantamweight record, per CompuBox.
The hope is that part three of this must-see thriller happens far soon than the eight-year wait for part two.
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