'Chocolatito' beats down Martinez, cruises to decision victory in a masterpiece
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The brilliant run of pound-for-pound legend Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez continued with a masterpiece against Julio Cesar Martinez on Saturday night in the Matchroom Boxing main event on DAZN at Pechanga Arena in San Diego.
Gonzalez, who is still going strong at age 34, outboxed, beat and battered Martinez in their junior bantamweight fight to remain in position to fight for yet another world title.
After assessing Martinez during the first round, Gonzalez dominated the rest of the fight. He won 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112, although giving Martinez even three or four rounds, as two judges did, seemed to be a stretch.
Nonetheless, Gonzalez added another tremendous performance to a resume that has seen him win world titles in four weight classes from strawweight to junior bantamweight, spend time as the consensus pound-for-pound king and become a lock for first-ballot election to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
“I’m thankful to God because he gave me another day with a victory,” Gonzalez said through a translator. “We still don’t know when I’m gonna retire. Maybe a few more fights. I came in really good condition for this fight. That’s why I’m here.”
Many were giving the much younger and powerful Martinez a serious chance to beat Gonzalez but that tuned out to be fantasy.
Martinez, the reigning WBC flyweight titleholder, took the fight on six weeks’ notice when his Mexican countryman, junior bantamweight world champion Juan Francisco Estrada (42-3, 28 KOs), came down with Covid-19 and had to withdraw from a rubber match with Gonzalez. Estrada defeated him by enormously controversial split decision to even their series at 1-1 last March in title unification bout that ranked as one of the best fights of 2021.
“Everyone knows that the last fight that I had with ‘Gallo’ Estrada I won,” Gonzalez said.
Although Martinez holds his title in the 112-pound division, he failed to make the 115-pound junior bantamweight limit at Friday’s weigh-in, coming in at 116.4 pounds while Gonzalez was 114.8.
Per California State Athletic Commission rules, Martinez was fined 20 percent of his $250,000 purse. Of the $50,000 fine, $25,000 was added to Gonzalez’s $725,000 purse, giving him a total of $750,000, and the other $25,000 went to the commission.
Perhaps being weight drained hampered Martinez, but Gonzalez looked like his vintage self, throwing and landing with his usual extraordinary work rate.
With reigning pound-for-pound king and undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, who is training at his San Diego camp for his May 7 fight with light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol, at ringside, Gonzalez put on a power-punching show.
“That was just an incredible performance from a pound-for-pound legend. ‘Chocolatito’ seems to be getting better and better,” Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said. “Julio Cesar Martinez taking this fight on six weeks’ notice gave everything, but you saw the difference between a very good world champion and a pound-for-pound legend of the sport in Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez. He was incredible.”
Gonzalez stalked Martinez from the second round and constantly banged him with hard right hands and lefts to the body, regularly backing him up and taking very few big shots in return.
Gonzalez said he did not do much in the opening round because he wanted to get a look at Martinez.
“I wanted to feel his power first. I wanted to work with him little by little and that’s what I did,” Gonzalez said. “My corner told me not to give him any rounds. He was very courageous. He can take a lot of punishment. I’m very surprised (that he went 12 rounds) but that indicates that he came in really great condition.”
Gonzalez (51-3, 41 KOs), a national hero in his native Nicaragua, had a particularly big sixth round. He knocked Martinez into the ropes with a right hand, later hurt him with a left hook and then rocked him with a left uppercut. A dejected Martinez looked resigned to his fate while on the stool after the round.
Gonzalez did not let up. In the seventh round, he forced Martinez to the ropes with a three-punch combination and later buckled him along the ropes with a right hand.
Martinez (18-2, 14 KOs), 26, had almost nothing left by the 10th round other than his heart as he took a pounding in a fight that could have been stopped.
Gonzalez closed the show with a huge 12th round, perhaps his best of the fight against a demoralized and battered Martinez. In the final round, Gonzalez landed an astonishing 58 of 129 blows (45 percent) — all fight highs — according to CompuBox statistics.
Gonzalez dominated the punch stats, landing 374 of 1,076 punches (35 percent) while Martinez connected with 182 of 713 (26 percent). Gonzalez outlanded Martinez in every round and landed 51 percent of his power shots (anything other than a jab).
Gonzalez is open to any significant fight as he continues on in the twilight of his career. He would like to reschedule the third fight with Estrada, there is a possible fight with newly crowned junior bantamweight titlist Jesse Rodriguez or even the possibility of moving up to bantamweight to pursue a title in a fifth weight class in a division that is home to stars Naoya Inoue and Nonito Donaire, both of whom hold world titles.
“Whatever comes,” Gonzalez said. “The boss (Hearn) is right here. He’ll decide, as long as they pay me well.”
Hearn said he is interested in rescheduling the third fight with Estrada, who was recently ordered to make a mandatory defense against secondary titlist Joshua Franco first. He also promotes Rodriguez, which could be a possibility.
“That was a sublime performance,” Hearn said. “I’d love to see the Estrada trilogy. Jessie Rodriguez, so many great fights for him.”
As for Martinez, if he can make weight, Hearn said he would return to flyweight and defend his title.
“You gained so many fans from that (fight). People love spirit. They love heart, and he never quit,” Hearn said. “He came up (in weight). He looked too small, he looked too inexperienced, he looked not good enough to beat one of the greatest fighters of all time. Big respect to him for taking the fight but tonight was about one of the greatest to ever do it, Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez.”
Photos: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing
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Enjoyed the fight, it went the way I thought it would. Only down side is Eddie found himself another chance to have a PPV fight in the future. That little quote "if they pay me right" adds to my suspitions. Lot of interesting fights over the weekend even several of the ESPN PLUS unders held up well. And had a wild one for three rounds over at DAZN so solid weekend of fights. And I would have given Burgos the win it was tight but still a close fight. Nothing to get wired out about just a thought. And the whole thing with Martinez not making weight just shows lack of disciple it has been part of him from jump actually. that is how he got an NC on his record. Could have been a DQ so there was that back when he got noticed.
I have to confess that I fell asleep before this fight started, I woke up briefly I was so bummed because it was like the eighth round, I looked for about 15 seconds and thought “oh, chocolatito’s got this for sure” back to sleep.