Is this Roman Gonzalez’s last stand?
“Chocolotito” is scheduled to challenge unbeaten junior bantamweight titleholder Kal Yafai on the Mikey Garcia-Jessie Vargas card Saturday night in Frisco, Texas on DAZN.
Not long ago, Gonzalez would’ve been the favorite in such a fight … in any fight. After all, the Nicaraguan dynamo was No. 1 on most credible pound-for-pound lists and considered a surefire first-ballot inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
That was then.
Gonzalez crashed down from his perch in two fights with Thai rival Wisaksil Wangek (Srisaket Sor Rungvisai) in 2017, a major decision in March that laid bare his vulnerability and then a brutal fourth-round knockout in September that turned his career upside down.
He has never the same. Conventional wisdom was that his climb in weight – from as light as 104¼ pounds to 114½ against Wangek – as well as father time (he’s 32 now) had caught up with him. Another factor might’ve been the death of longtime trainer Arnulfo Obando in November 2016, which plunged Gonzalez’s into mourning.
Bottom line: The unstoppable little monster from Central America was gone.
“The knockout to Rungvisai was rock bottom,” Carlos Blandon, Gonzalez’s longtime advisor, told ESPN.com. “Roman had lost his trainer and then he lost the title to Rungvisai in the first fight and then the knockout loss in the second fight. Everything was disintegrating.
“We had to start all over. Now we have a really solid team and we are a couple of days from being champion again and everybody feels very excited.”
Gonzalez (48-2, 40 KOs) also had to deal with bad luck.
He took a year off after the second fight with Wangek to pull himself together and rest. That seemed to rejuvenate him. In his first fight back, in September 2018, he stopped former strawweight titleholder Moise Fuentes in five rounds in a scheduled eight-round junior bantamweight fight.
That was a strong statement by Gonzalez, who hadn’t won a fight in two years. Then, after the Fuentes victory, he was struck by the misfortune: He tore cartilage in his right knee while jogging and required surgery, which kept him out of the ring for another 15 months.
Finally, this past Dec. 23, he returned once again and stopped relative unknown Diomel Diocos in two rounds. The victory didn’t prove much other than to announce he was back but it set up the fight with Yafai, who will be making the sixth defense of his 115-pound title.
The 2008 Olympic from England is only two years younger than Gonzalez but he’s had less wear and tear. And, having never fought below the junior bantamweight division, he’s the naturally bigger man.
Yafai (26-0, 15 KOs) is only a slight favorite but that might be because of Gonzalez’s name more than anything else.
“I’m in the best condition for this fight,” Gonzalez said. “I will take advantage of this opportunity. There’s not a small person in this fight, everyone is very good. I come with a blessing that I will win. Thank you and hope this sport of boxing will be a spectacle for everyone.”
We’ll see whether this a new beginning for Gonzalez or the end.