Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez possible for Canelo-GGG 2 card

Boxingnews24.com

By Allen Fox

Former 3 division world champion Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez (46-2, 38 KOs) is a definite possibility to fight on the undercard the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin 2 rematch on May 5th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

If Chocolatito wins his fight on May 5th, he could then face the winner of this Saturday’s fight between WBC super flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai vs. Juan Francisco Estrada. It’s likely that Gonzalez, 30, would only be facing the winner of that fight if it’s Estrada, who he already beat 6 years ago in 2012.

Gonzalez vs. Estrada 2 would be a great fight, and a winnable one for Chocolatito. There’s no point in Gonzalez facing Rungvisai again, as the Thailand fighter has already shown that he his number and it just too powerful for him.

It’s unlikely Gonzalez’s opponent for the May 5th Canelo-Golovkin 2 card would be Carlos Cuadras. Gonzalez already beat him by a grueling 12 round unanimous decision in September 2016. A second fight would be really hard on Gonzalez, as he would likely take too much punishment and have very little left to face the Rungvisai vs. Estrada winner.

The Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 card will be televised on HBO pay-per-view on May 5th. That means Gonzalez will likely need to face a live body. It would be good to see Gonzalez fight one of these super flyweight contenders on the May 5th card at the T-Mobile Arena:

• Rau-Shee Warren

• Rex Tso

• Jhonniel Casimero

• Norberto Jimenez

• Jonas Sultan

Any of those contenders would make for an entertaining fight Chocolatito. But if he loses to one of those guys, then it might be time for him to retire from boxing or at least move back down to 112 or 108.

At 115, Gonzalez is not the same fighter he was when he was fighting at 105, 108 and 112 lb. weight divisions. Gonzalez dominated in those weight classes with his power and combination punching. He’s gone too far in moving up to 115. The fact that Gonzalez is choosing to stay in that weight class rather than melt down 3 pounds to go back to 112 suggests that he might not be able to lose those 3 lbs. It’s hard to fathom a fighter not being able to lose 3 lbs., but that’s the only explanation one can think of for why he doesn’t move back down to flyweight.

Chocolatito has badly hurt his own career by choosing to stay at 115 after the difficult fights he’s had with Cuadras and Rungvisai. If it’s a case of stubbornness or not wanting to be seen as giving up on the 115 lb. weight class, Roman needs to get over it. You don’t see Cuadras and Rungvisai moving up to a weight class where they would nothing but problems like at super bantamweight. Rungvisai and Cuadras would struggle if they moved up to 118 or 122 and tries to compete against fighters like Zolanti Tete, Luis Nery, Rey Vargas, Jessie Magdaleno and Emmanuel Rodriguez. Rungvisai and Cuadras are saying at 115, where they’re better suited to succeed.

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