Kal Yafai vs. Sho Ishida this Saturday

By Jeff Aranow: WBA World super flyweight champion Kal Yafai (22-0, 14 KOs) will be defending his title this Saturday night against his No.1 WBA mandatory challenger Sho Ishida (24-0, 13 KOs), and he’s hoping to get a fight against former 4 division world champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (46-2, 38 KOs) after that.

With a good win over Ishida, Yafai could be fighting on HBO on the SuperFly II card in February 2018. Yafai would be expected to fight a good opponent if he were to fight on the SuperFly card. He couldn’t defend his WBA title against a fodder opponent. Yafai would need to fight someone good like WBC champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.

If Yafai can get past the 25-year-old Ishida on Saturday, he could wind up fighting on HBO Boxing against the likes of Gonzalez. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai would be the idea opponent for Yafai to right now, as he’s got the hot hand at this time and he’s become the new darling for HBO. Rungvisai is arguably the replacement for Roman Gonzalez, so it makes sense them to want him to face Yafai in a unification fight.

Yafai’s promoter Eddie Hearn would need to be on board with a fight between him and Rungvisai, and he might not like that idea. Hearn’s fighters tend to win most of the time, and that’s because of his careful match-making. Rungvisai vs. Yafai could be a disaster for Hearn. Rungvisai punches so incredibly hard, and he would be looking to take Yafai apart right away if that fight was made. Yafai, 28, would likely be in the survival mode from the word go against Rungvisai.

Roman Gonzalez might have enough left in the tank at this point in his career to get past Yafai. The guys that Gonzalez has been having problems with, Rungvisai and Carlos Cuadras, are big punchers. Yafai is not a huge puncher. He’s just a big guy for the super flyweight division.

Yafai vs. Gonzalez would have been a good fight last year, but it’s not a great one now. Gonzalez has lost his last 2 fights against the hard hitting Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. The way that Gonzalez was knocked out by Rungvisai in their rematch last month on September 9 on the SuperFly card, there’s no point in Yafal targeting him. It’ll look like Yafai is cherry picking if he selects “Chocolatito” now for a fight instead of fighting Rungvisai. That’s clearly the fighter that Yafael should be trying to face now in a unification fight rather than looking to beat an over-the-hill Roman Gonzalez. Rungvisai holds the WBC super flyweight title, and he’d jump at the chance to fight Yafai for his WBA belt.

Yafai’s promoter Eddie Hearn might not be too keen on throwing him in with Rungvisai right now, because the outcome would very likely be disastrous for Yafai. It took Hearn 4 years to turn Yafai into a world champion. It’s not likely that Hearn is going to want to see Yafai lose his WBA title by matching him against a force of nature like Rungvisai.

The Yafai vs. Ishida fight has slipped under the radar screen, because the fight has been eclipsed by the much bigger matches between Anthony Joshua and Carlos Takam, as well as the Dillian Whyte vs. Robert Helenius.

Yafai-Ishida will be taking place on the undercard of the Joshua vs. Takam fight at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.

“It was a bit surprising to me that Rungvisai done the double over Gonzalez,” Yafai said to ESPN.com about Rungvisai’s back to back wins over Roman Gonzalez. “It was a great show. Hopefully, I’ll deal with Ishida and then get involved in the next ‘Superfly’ card.”

This will be Yafai’s second defense of his WBA 115lb. title on Saturday. Yafai defeated Suguru Muranaka by a 12 round unanimous decision in his first defense earlier this year on May 13. It was a good performance by Yafai against a weak opponent in a voluntary defense. Yafai’s boxing fans were excited about the fight results. There’s a world of difference between Muranaka and Roman Gonzalez.