Boxing Results: Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez DOMINATES Kal Yafai

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By Kenneth Friedman

Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez showed that he still had incredible skills and talent with his ninth-round knockout victory over WBA super flyweight champion Kal Yafai last Saturday night.

Yafai’s promoter Eddie Hearn says they have a rematch clause for a second fight with Gonzalez, but he’s going to advise him NOT to use it. Hearn wants Yafai to move up to 118.

Additionally, Hearn says he has an option for Gonzalez’s next fight, and he wants to match him against WBC champion Juan Fransico Estrada in a unification fight in California or Mexico. Gonzalez beat Estrada in 2012 by a 12 round decision.

Gonzalez (49-2. 41 KOs) showed incredible technical ability in knocking down the previously unbeaten Yafai (26-1, 15 KOs) twice in the fight to snatch his WBA 115-lb title away from him in the co-feature bout on the undercard of Mikey Garcia vs. Jessie Vargas at The Star in Frisco, Texas.

Gonzalez too good for Yafai

It had been three years since Gonzalez had held a world title, but he looked like the same fighter he’d been many years before with the way he took care of Yafai. Before the fight, there were a lot of question marks looming over the head of the 30-year-old Yafai about whether he’d been coddled by his promoter Eddie Hearn during his career.

Although Yafai had won the WBA title in 2016 and held it for close to 4 years, he’d beaten no one of real talent. He’d been matched selectively against good fighters but not A-level guys.

Last night, we saw the end result of Yafai being matched against a former A-level fighter in Chocolatito, who is still quite good despite having lost some of the talent that he once had. Chocolatito at perhaps 80% o what he once was in his prime was simply too much for Yafai.

Kal tried his best but he didn’t have the legs to move around the ring to box Gonzalez the way he needed to for him to have a chance at winning. At this point in Yafai’s career, he needs to move up to 118 to fight at bantamweight. The signs had already been there for the last 2 years that Yafai needed to move up in weight, but last night it was made clear that this is the end for him at super flyweight.

Hearn wants Yafai to move up to bantamweight

Yafai’s promoter Eddie Hearn says he’s got to move up to bantamweight because it’s too difficult for him to make 115 at this point. It’s a miracle that Yafai has lasted this long at 115, considering that he’s been at that weight since he turned pro in 2012. In contrast, Roman Gonzalez had moved up 2 divisions by the time he was a seven-year pro. He couldn’t stay at the same weight due to him getting bigger.News:Boxing Results: Julio Cesar Martinez defeats Jay Harris

“I talked to him in the changing room and it’s been consistently hard for him to make eight stone three, but you can’t move up in weight before you get your big chance and a big payday,” said Hearn to IFL TV on Kafai and his fight against Chocolatito.

“Tonight, he got his big payday but unfortunately he didn’t take his chances for a number of reasons. The weight didn’t help but irrelevant. Quite frankly, he was beaten by the better man,” said Hearn of Yafai losing to Gonzalez.

Yafai’s movement wasn’t there

2008 Olympian Yafai was making his sixth defense of his WBA 115-lb strap, and it was by far the biggest fight of his career. Years ago, Yafai had greatly admired Chocolatito and had traveled to watch him fight live. It was unfortunate for Yafai that he had to fight a still very live Gonzalez in what was by far the biggest fight of his career. Yafai had planned on using his boxing skills to beat Roman, but he wasn’t up to the task.News:David Benavidez to defend against Caleb Truax on April 19 on Showtime

The legs weren’t there for Yafai, and he was forced to stand and fight Chocolatito, which he wasn’t equipped to do. It wouldn’t have mattered if Yafai was strong at the weight, he was never going to beat a talented fighter like Gonzalez by standing in front of him. That’s the Nicaraguan’s game, and he’d made a career out of battering his opponents with his high-volume punching in close range.

The only time in Chocolatito’s career where he wasn’t able to get the better of opponent is when he met up with Srisaket Sor Rungvisai who was too powerful for him and beat him twice. Rungvisai beat Gonzalez just on power, not skills.

Hearn: I was in awe of Chocolatito

“He boxed the wrong fight, probably because his legs only allowed him to box the style of fight that he wanted to, but he wasn’t good enough,” said Hearn of Yafai. “He was beaten by the better fighter. But when it’s Choocolatito, that’s no disgrace.

“I watched that fight and I was in owe of Chocolatito. I was screaming for Kal, but I was thinking, ‘He’s [Gonzalez] so good. He’s such an amazing guy.”

Gonzalez had captured division titles at 105, 108, 112 and 115, and he had been given up on by boxing fans since his consecutive defeats against Thailand’s Rungvisai in 2017. Although Gonzalez was only 29 when he lost to Rungvisai in back to back fights, fans assumed that he was over-the-hill. They gave Rungvisai no credit for being a monster puncher with excellent talent for him to do what he did against Gonzalez.

Gonzalez looked like the old Chocolatito

After Gonzalez’s two losses to Rungvisai, he was forgotten by fans. Before the Yafai fight, Roman won his last two fights in beating Moises Fuentes and Diomel Diocos by knockout. Along the way, Gonzalez had knee surgery to repair an injury he sustained during training, so he was out of the ring from 2018 to 2019.

Gonzalez looked like the fighter he’d been in his prime last December in stopping the blazing-fast Diocos by a second-round knockout in Japan. After that victory, Gonzalez was ready to fight Yafai for his world title.

In the first three rounds against Yafai, Gonzalez didn’t go all out with his offense. He was fighting in small explosive spurts and keeping the pressure on Yafai the whole time. Gonzalez was jabbing and then coming forward to nail Yafai with perfectly placed left hooks followed by hard rights. He mixed up his punches well going from head to body, and not giving Yafai a chance to predict where the shots were heading.

Gonzalez’s pressure wore Yafai down

Yafai had problems blocking all the incoming because there were so many punching being thrown at him by Gonzalez. This clearly wasn’t one of Yafai’s typical opponents, who lacked the ability to throw nonstop shots the way Roman was doing. Yafai was throwing some nice shots back at Gonzalez, but he couldn’t throw enough. He doesn’t have that kind of offense to where he’s able to throw punches as frequently as Gonzalez.

Chocolatito knocked Yafai’s mouthpiece out twice in the first three rounds with his shots, and that was a bad sign for the champion. Yafai was getting hit with too many jarring uppercuts from Gonalez, which he threw so effortlessly. It looked like Gonzalez was putting nothing into the shots, but they were doing damage due to the perfect form that he had.

Starting from round 4, Gonzalez increased his attacks, throwing more punches and staying on top of Yafai and not letting him breathe. During this time, Yafai’s face started to swell up, and it was becoming evident that he would need to change things up if he wanted to go the 12 round distance with Roman. The body and headshots that Yafai was taking was doing damage to him.

Yafai unable to box Gonzalez

Each time Yafai would go to his corner, his trainers would tell him to start boxing Roman, but he couldn’t follow their instructions. When Yafai did attempt to move to the outside, Gonzalez chased him and was quickly on top of him again, hammering him with shots. Gonzalez’s ability to close the distance may have been underestimated by Yafai and his training team, as there was no way that he could have boxed from the outside with that kind of pressure.

In round six, Gonzalez suffered a cut over his right eye from a head-butt. After suffering the cut, Roman began to pressure Yafai even more. It’s possible that Roman felt he couldn’t take chances with the fight potentially being stopped from the cut.

The fight devolved into a massacre by the 7th round, with Gonzalez hammering Yafai with punches and weakening him. Yafai was smiling and nodding his head occasionally when Gonzalez would hit him with hard shots but wasn’t firing back punches as he’d been during in the early rounds.

In round 8, Gonzalez knocked Yafai down with a right hand in close. Yafai tried to duck one of Gonzalez’s punches and was clipped and put down. When Yafai got to his feet, it was obvious that he was hurt and wasn’t going to last much longer. The knockdown occurred at the end of the 8th. Gonzalez was hitting Yafai at will with punches in the 8th, and he had zero chance of winning. You can argue that Yafai’s corner should have considered pulling him out in between rounds because he had nothing left.

Chocolatito hit Yafai at will with shots in 9th

The end came for Yafai at the start of round 9, as Gonzalez hurt him with a right hand. Moments later, Gonzalez knocked Yafai down with a right to the head that put him down flat on his back. Referee Luis Pabon waved it off at 29 seconds of the round.

“We signed Chocolatito, if he won, we’d have an option to promote him because we want to give Kal Yafai a rematch clause,” said Hearn. “But I don’t think Kal should exercise the rematch clause because I think he needs to move to bantamweight.

“I think he needs to try and win another world title at bantamweight. And I think so. I think it’s an amazing fight,” said Hearn when asked if Chocolatito could face Estrada next. “A unification fight in Mexico or California. It’s just a monstrous fight.”