Estrada, Chocolatito predict 3rd fight will be best of historic series
Junior bantamweight championship on the line Saturday night
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After two fierce fight of the year contenders, probable Hall of Famers Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez are ready to deliver the rubber match of the rivalry that has defined their careers.
The series is 1-1 and they meet for the third time in the main event of the Matchroom Boxing card on Saturday (DAZN, 8 p.m. ET) at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
Estrada will defend the lineal junior bantamweight championship and The Ring magazine title and they will also fight for the vacant WBC 115-pound belt in a bout few expect anything less than another memorable action battle.
“Fight fans around the world know that in boxing it’s very difficult to get two modern-day greats together,” Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said. “These two are about to do it for the third time. (It’s) one of the greatest trilogies of our generation for a multitude of belts, but more importantly, to settle the score. One apiece, two tremendous fighters, and we’re about to see an incredible fight.”
Estrada (43-3, 28 KOs), 32, of Mexico, and Gonzalez (51-3, 41 KOs), 35, the legendary four-division champion from Nicaragua, who have been in a numerous action-packed fights, said they both expect another exciting fight when they finally meet again after No. 3 had been twice postponed due to each fighter coming down with Covid-19.
“If you thought the second fight was good, the third fight will be even better because we are prepared better than ever before,” Gonzalez said this week through an interpreter.
Estrada has the same mindset.
“He and I are fighters who do our talking in the ring. Outside we’re respectful, but inside we disrespect each other,” Estrada said through an interpreter. “We’re colleagues outside of the ring and what we do, we do it in the ring and we’re going to show it in the ring. That’s why this is going to be the best fight out of all three of them.”
“This is going to be the best fight out of all three of them.” — Juan Francisco Estrada
“If you thought the second fight was good, the third fight will be even better.” — Roman Gonzalez
Hearn has said that the rematch the March 2021 in Dallas was perhaps the best fight he has ever seen in person, so he was almost taken aback when the fighters said the third fight could be the best of the series.
“To be honest with you, I would have taken 50 percent of one or two. If we get the best fight of the trilogy here, we will get one of the greatest fights in the history of this sport,” Hearn said. “I think I speak for everybody when I say thank you to Juan Estrada, thank you to Roman Gonzalez, for continuously giving us great fights and stepping up to fight the best in boxing.”
When they first met in 2012 in Los Angeles for Gonzalez’s WBA junior flyweight title, Estrada had come down in weight for the opportunity and lost a highly competitive unanimous decision.
“The first was a fight that was decided on points at 108 pounds. It was an incredible fight, a close, tough fight,” Gonzalez said. “But with our skills and conditioning, we kept coming and came out with a good result on the day of the fight.”
Both men would go on to great heights.
Gonzalez, who had previously won a strawweight title, would go on to win world titles at flyweight and junior bantamweight to make him the only fighter in history to win belts in boxing’s four lightest divisions. He was also, for a time, widely viewed as the pound-for-pound king.
Estrada would bounce back from the loss to Gonzalez and go on to win the unified flyweight title in his next fight in 2013 and then added a junior bantamweight title to his collection in 2019.
When Estrada and Gonzalez finally met for the second time in a long-awaited rematch it was to unify their junior bantamweight titles. It was another hellacious fight and surely would have been the 2021 fight of the year had it not been for the instant classic Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder III heavyweight championship fight.
Estrada won a highly controversial spit decision in the rematch to unify the WBC and WBA titles (he eventually vacated the WBC title and was stripped of the WBA). After each man won an interim fight and the postponements from last October and March were dealt with, fight No. 3 is at hand.
“We know it’s going to be a great fight, a war for the fans,” Gonzalez said. “But we have faith in God that we’re going to come out victorious. My physical condition has been very good, and I know it will be a beautiful fight for the fans. We’ve shown that the lighter weights have qualities that fans like to see. I get the feeling this third fight will be legendary too and many people will remember this great fight like the first and the second. The last two fights captured the hearts of the fans so, the third will be a tremendous fight. It could be the best one.”
Gonzalez is in the twilight of his career but enjoying every minute of it.
“The most important thing is to enjoy the moment. And right now, I’m enjoying myself because you'll never get these moments back so, I’m enjoying it,” he said. “I’m loving it because I feel that God has given me such a great gift, you know?”
Whatever happens on Saturday, it is not necessarily the end of the rivalry, throughout which both men have shown the other nothing but respect.
Both acknowledged that by facing each other they make their biggest purses, so a fourth fight is by no means out of the question. Gonzalez is open to it.
“Once this fight’s over, let's see what happens. What comes next? It's difficult for me to leave this world of boxing behind,” Gonzalez said. “But sooner or later I know that it will be time to rest, a time to find space in my life and to completely dedicate myself to other things and in the main that would be my family.”
Estrada is more gung-ho about continuing the rivalry beyond Saturday.
“He beat me in 2012 and I beat him in the second fight, so you could say this is the decider. There might be a fourth like Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, who knows,” Estrada said. “We’ll have our trilogy, and we don’t know whether it will end here or not. We’re going to find out who is the best, who will be leading in fights won and if in the future, God willing, there is a fourth, bring it on.”
Estrada-Gonzalez photo: Melina Pizano/Matchroom Boxing
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Given the relatively quiet or lame schedule of late (including the nonsense taking place in the UK today) I’m so excited about this fight! It’s a can’t miss battle between legends.
pumped for this!!!🥊