Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez are scheduled to meet in a compelling title-unification rematch of their 2012 fight
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JUAN FRANCISCO ESTRADA (41-3, 28 KOs)
VS. ROMAN GONZALEZ (50-2, 41 KOs)
- Date: Saturday, March 13
- Time: 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
- Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas
- Stream / TV: DAZN and pay-per-view via cable or satellite
- Cost: DAZN: $19.99 per month or $99 annually. Simply download the app. Pay-per-view: $24.99. Includes unlimited access to stream DAZN through the end of April 2021 at no extra charge.
- Division: Junior bantamweight (115 pounds)
- At stake: Estrada’s WBC and Gonzalez’s WBA titles
- Pound-for-pound ranking: Estrada No. 10
- Odds: Estrada 1½-1 (BetMGM)
- Also on the card: Hiroto Kyoguchi vs. Axel Aragon Vega, junior flyweights (for Kyoguchi’s WBA title); Jessica McCaskill vs. Cecilia Braekhus, welterweights (for McCaskill’s IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO titles)
- Prediction: Estrada UD
- Background: It doesn’t get much better than this. Then-108-pound titleholder Gonzalez and Estrada fought back in 2012, when Gonzalez was blossoming into one of the best fighters in the world and Estrada was a relative unknown contender. ‘Chocolatito’ won a unanimous decision but a competitive Estrada gave notice that he was a force to be reckoned with. A lot has happened since. Gonzalez climbed to No. 1 on many pound-for-pound lists only to lose back-to-back fights to Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in 2017. The Nicaraguan rebounded to win four consecutive fights, including a KO of Khalid Yafai to win a 115-pound title in February of last year. Estrada went on to win titles in two divisions and make his own pound-for-pound claim. The Mexican is coming off an impressive 11th-round knockout of former titleholder Carlos Cuadras this past October. The winner of Estrada-Gonzalez will hold two of the four belts in the division and become the man to beat.
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