IN front of a raucous crowd of 16,353 at the Forum in Inglewood, California, unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (35-0/32 KOs) remained undefeated – and on this night, unchallenged – as he summarily dispatched Dominick Wade in two rounds. On this night ‘GGG’ was shooting fish in a barrel as Wade was simply overmatched in every single way.
The real fight of the night took was between WBC flyweight king, Roman Gonzalez and Puerto Rican challenger, McWilliams Arroyo who battled over twelve hard rounds. Arroyo was game and gutty throughout, having his moments as he landed quick, striking punches, but was simply over-whelmed at times by the constant heavy-handed attack of ‘Chocolatito’, who maintained his perfect mark on Saturday night with a unanimous decision by the scores of 120-108, 119-109 and 119-109, which quite frankly, seemed a tad wide.
Fighting off Gonzalez (who is now 45-0/38 KOs) is akin to holding back an avalanche – simply impossible. It may start off slowly, then it slowly builds momentum till it comes rampaging downhill on you. Over the course of time, Gonzalez simply engulfs you with a myriad of power punches that are delivered with proper technique and balance.
Gonzalez, who many pundits and observers believe is the best fighter on the planet, has won major world titles at minimumweight, junior flyweight and flyweight will most likely soon be moving up to the 115-pound class. Throughout the week the affects of making the 112-pound limit were clear. He looked drawn and gaunt. They say that in combat sports that there are really two fights: the one to make weight and then the actual fight itself. And for some, the former is tougher than the latter. Which just might be the case for this little dynamo, who was openly spitting into a cup as he met with reporters before the fight.
It’s now become a regular process for Gonzalez: struggle versus the scales and then shine brightly in the fight.
The 28-year old Nicaraguan star has made it clear his intention to move up in weight in the near future and attempt to win a championship in a fourth weight class.
But Gonzalez says he has one more fight left in him at flyweight. If that’s the case then there is only one match-up that should be made – a rematch with Juan Francisco Estrada. When they first met on a cold, rainy night at the aged L.A. Sports Arena (which will be torn down soon for a soccer stadium) in November of 2012, Estrada was this young and relatively unknown Mexican fighter but one that gave Gonzalez all that he could handle over twelve spirited rounds for his WBA 108-pound belt.
After that defeat, Estrada moved up in weight and upset Brian Viloria to capture the WBA and WBO flyweight belts and has now ripped off six successful title defenses in impressive fashion. At 26 he is now clearly in his physical and technical peak as a prizefighter.
Back when they met in 2012, Gonzalez was a figure known to just the hardest of the hard-core fans. Now, he is among the most prominent figures in the sport and it’s evident that his days as the opening act for ‘the Big Drama Show’ that is Golovkin are coming to an end. HBO has now made him a priority and has designs on him headlining his own cards as they go back to the formula that once made their ‘Boxing After Dark’ series what it was.
Gonzalez-Estrada II would be match-up of the two premiere flyweights in the game today. The first fight was memorable and now the stakes are even higher. It says here it would be one of the best fights to make in all of boxing.
And for both men, it’s the only fight that should happen next.