Is it too early to ask for a trilogy?
Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman 'Chocolatito' Gonzalez combined for a ridiculous record of 2,529 punches thrown in a super flyweight division fight Saturday night. After the fireworks finally ended, Estrada had his hand raised by split-decision, although one could argue that the fight could have been decided for Gonzalez just as fairly. Judges at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas had it scored 117-111, 115-113 and 113-115 to give Estrada the split decision victory, as he not only walked away as the WBA/WBC unified world champion, but also with revenge served from his November 2012 unanimous decision loss to 'Chocolatito.'
"I think I did enough to deserve to win," said a victorious Estrada, who had just finished throwing a career-high 1,212 punches, despite being outlanded by 77 punches. "'Chocolatito' is a great fighter and I think he deserves the trilogy."
Estrada and Gonzalez delivered nonstop fire in the phone booth in a bout that really could have gone either way. The last several rounds had both champions forehead-to-forehead, essentially taking turns punching and counterpunching, with neither budging. Perhaps Estrada said it best:
"If he threw two or three punches," he said, "I had to throw two or three punches as well."
The urgency from both fighters showed in the 12th and final round, where they combined for 95 punches — 90 of them being power shots.
The bout was so thrilling that Estrada sounded more than willing to treat a third fight with Gonzalez with higher priority than a trilogy with his mandatory challenger and rival, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, who he is 1-1 against.
"Rungvisai is a mandatory, so I'll look at that," Estrada added, "but I'll approach a third fight any day with 'Chocolatito.'"
Gonzalez is up for fighting either.
This is how the entire Estrada vs. Gonzalez card went.
Roman Gonzalez vs. Juan Francisco Estrada 2 fight card
- Juan Francisco Estrada def. Roman 'Chocolatito' Gonzalez by split-decision (115-113 for Gonzalez, 117-111 for Estrada and 115-113 for Estrada) to become unified WBA/WBC junior bantamweight champion
- Jessica McCaskill def. Cecilia Braekhus via unanimous decision (100-89, 99-90, 98-91) to retain WBC/IBF/WBO/WBA Women’s Welterweight Titles
- Souleymane Cissokho def. Daniel Echeverria by sixth-round TKO
- Hiroto Kyoguchi def. Axel Vega via fifth-round TKO to retain WBA Junior Flyweight title
- Austin Williams def. Denis Douglin by unanimous decision (79-73, 79-73, 77-75); Middleweight
- Raymond Ford and Aaron Perez fight to split draw (78-74 for Perez, 77-75 for Ford, 76-76); Featherweight