SuperFly2 – Rungvisai vs. Estrada preview & prediction

Boxingnews24.com

By Jim Dower

Harold Lederman of HBO had nothing negative to say about this Saturday’s SuperFly 2 main event fight between WBC super flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (44-4-1, 40 KOs) and former WBA/WBO flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada (36-2, 25 KOs) in their fight on HBO Boxing at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

HBO Boxing will be televising the Rungvisai-Estrada fight, as well as the co-feature bout between former 115 lb. champion Carlos Cuadras and McWilliams Arroyo.

Rungvisai, 31, just derailed the career of one of HBO’s favorite fighters in former #1 Ring Magazine pound-for-pound star Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez in defeating him in March and September of last year in consecutive fights. Thailand’s Rungvisai still isn’t being given full credit for his 2 wins over Gonzalez by the boxing world. The fans are saying that Rungvisai took advantage of a fighter that was made to order for him in Chocolatito, who made the mistake of going right at him and trying to slug instead of boxing hi the way Cuadras did in 2014.

Cuadras beat Rungvisai by an 8th round technical decision on fight that was stopped due to a cut that the Mexican fighter had sustained. Estrada is a boxer capable of using a lot of movement in his fights to avoid the big punches of his opponents. Whether Estrada can keep out of range of the big punches of Rungvisai will be the big test for this fight.

“February 24th we have SuperFly 2, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, 115-pound champion is one of the really, really good fighters in boxing,” Lederman said in his preview of the great Rungvisai vs. Estrada match-up. ”First time he won a very close decision over ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez at Madison Square Garden, when ‘Chocolatito’ was considered the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world,” Lederman said.

Rungvisai’s first fight with Gonzalez last March saw him win a 12 majority decision. Rungvisai knocked Gonzalez down with a body shot in round 1, and he dominated most of the rounds. Gonzalez came on down the stretch and made it close with his body shots, but Rungvisai looked like the better fighter. Estrada cannot let Rungvisai land his big punches in this fight the way that Gonzalez did, as he hits too hard for him to be allowed to land his punches for a prolonged period. Estrada is a good fighter, but he’s not hold together under the monstrous punches from Rungisai for a full 12 rounds without wearing down and getting stopped.

“The second time Srisaket Sor Rungvisai fought ‘Chocolatitio’ Gonzalez he knocked him out in the fourth round,” Lederman said. ”Sensational. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai is absolutely one of the best fighters in the world, but he’s fighting a guy who you could consider one of the best fighters in the world in Juan Francisco Estrada,” Lederman continued.

Roman Gonzalez already beat Estrada by a 12 round unanimous decision on November 17, 2012. It was a close fight, but it was a clear victory for Gonzalez with him getting the decision by he scores 118-110, 116-112 and 116-112. Estrada was trying to get out of the way of Gonzalez’s attacks, and the judges had no choice but to score the fight for Chocolatito. Estrada wasn’t nearly aggressive enough for him to win the fight. Estrada is probably going to use the same approach against Rungvisai by boxing him and staying out of harm’s way as much as possible.

Estrada, 27, is coming into Saturday’s fight with a 10-fight winning streak that dates back 5 years to 2013. Estrada has a nice winning streak going for him. Of those 10 wins, Estrada has victories over Brian Viloria, Richie Mepranum, Giovani Segura, Milan Melindo, Hernan Marquez and Carlos Cuadras. All 6 of those fighters are former world champions, and Estrada beat them all. However, when it counted the most in Estrada’s fight with Roman Gonzalez in 2012, he was beaten. As I mentioned previously, Rungvisai defeated Gonzalez twice in a row in his last 2 fights, and he looked a lot better against him than Estrada did in losing.

Estrada, 5’4”, is slightly taller than the 5’3” Rungvisai, and he has better hand speed. Rungvisai is far stronger fighter, who is capable of boxing and moving when he wants to, as we saw in his first fight with Gonzalez. If Estrada is going to beat Rungvisai, he’s probably going to need to do it by staying in the pocket and defeating him at his own game. Rungvisai has enough boxing skills to hang with Estrada.

Prediction

I’m going with Rungvisai to beat Estrada by an 8th round knockout. Rungvisai won’t get tired, and I see him wearing the weaker Estrada down and knocking him out by the 8th round. Estrada will have his moments in the fight, but ultimately, it’ll be Rungvisai’s punching power that will be too much for him.

“We saw Juan Francisco Estrada recently when he beat Carlos Cuadras in a fight that all three judges scored 114-113 for Estrada,” Lederman said. ”You know, they all had it by one point. It was that close. Carlos Cuadras is taking on McWilliams Arroyo, you know, a kid on the way up from Puerto Rico. I don’t think McWilliams Arroyo is going to go the distance with Carlos Cuadras. Carlos Cuadras is just too good. Absolutely one of the best fighters in the world as well,” Lederman said.

Cuadras (36-2-1, 27 KOs) is a very good fighter, but he has major stamina problems that kick in after 5 or 6 rounds. We saw that in Cuadras’ last 3 fights against Estrada, David Carmona and Roman Gonzalez. In all 3 of those fights, Cuadras started off well in the first 6 rounds, but he then faded in the second half. Gonzalez and Estrada beat him, albeit by close decisions. Carmona wasn’t so lucky. The judges gave Cuadras a controversial 10 round unanimous decision that he didn’t appear to deserve. Arroyo, 32, is a 2008 Olympian from Puerto Rico, and he’s never been knocked out before. Arroyo was beaten by Gonzalez and Amnat Ruenroeng. Those were both 12 round decision losses for Arroyo. He wasn’t hurt. If Cuadras gasses out against Arroyo, we could see a potential upset on Saturday. Cuadras is favored, but his stamina problems could show up on him and cost him the fight. Cuadras’ new trainer Abel Sanchez has been working on his conditioning, but it remains to be seen whether he’ll be able to fix this problem. “So here we have three fighters at 115 pounds who are three of the best fighters in the world: Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, definitely; Juan Francisco Estrada, absolutely; and Carlos Cuadras. So it’s going to be a very, very interesting night of boxing, for sure,” Lederman said.

Prediction

I see Cuadras winning a 12 round unanimous decision over Arroyo. The combination of ring rust and lack of size and power will be too much for Arroyo He hasn’t fought in 2 years since his loss to Gonzalez in 2016, and that’s a long time to be out of the ring for a guy about to face a big puncher like Cuadras. Arroyo is going to take a lot of punishment from Cuadras in the first 6 rounds of the fight. Even if Cuadras, 9, does gas out in the last half of the contest, Arroyo might be too beaten up and punch drunk by that point in the right to rally. What Arroyo needs is a couple of tune-ups right now, but he’s not getting that. He’ll coming off of a long 2-year layoff to face one of the best fighters in the super flyweight division in Cuadras.