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September 10, 2016 Roman Gonzalez vs Carlos Cuadras at Forum, Inglewood, California for the WBC World super flyweight title
Roman Gonzalez beats Carlos Cuadras in Inglewood
Nicaragua’s Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez proved critics wrong when he won last night’s contest against Carlos Cuadras. He becomes one of the few boxers to successfully move up the weight category and beat much bigger and experienced opponents.
The unbeaten WBC flyweight champion jumped a weight up to give Mexico’s Cuadras a run for his own title. He proved he was a match for the much bigger Cuadras by beating him 117-111, 116-112, and 115-113 in an Inglewood arena that was teeming with the Mexican’s supporters. He is now unbelievably the WBC Super flyweight champion.
An ecstatic crowd
The 5’3 tall Nicaraguan clinched his historic 115lbs win after 12 rounds which mostly saw his opponent try to escape him. The crowd had cheered euphoriasly as the boxing duo tore at each other at the Fabulous Forum arena.
Known for his accurate footwork and a no nonsense approach to his game, the Nicaraguan boxing star went toe to toe with the Mexican, throwing powerful and well-calculated combinations at him. The Mexican responded with equally quick and accurate punches. It was a crowd-engaging duel that saw a total of 1,822 punches delivered over 12 rounds. Gonzalez landed 322 of 983 and Cuadras 257 of 889.
New fans for Cuadras
The face off between Chocolatito and Cuadras was the most entertaining among all the boxing duels that took place last night. Many have fronted it for the 2016 Fight of the Year title. Cuadras managed to endear fans to himself through his swift punches in spite of it being only his second time to fight on a U.S. podium. He was barely known in the U.S. prior to last night’s fight but he had earned himself a pretty number of American fans at the end of the match. The defeat by Chocolatito was the first one for him in major competitions.
A running game
In spite of the stellar performance displayed by the Mexican, it did look like he was somewhat afraid of pound for pound fighter. As the rounds unfolded, Gonzalez kept chasing Cuadras around the canvas ring, sometimes forcing the Mexican to fight when he really wasn’t ready to. Cuadras mostly responded by throwing wild haymakers which his challenger managed to dodge. He at times just kept running or held a clitch, prompting observers to speculate that he could be afraid of Gonzalez even though he is much bigger than him.
Round 12
Round 12 was a very spectacular round. Both parties were desperate for a win at this point and they therefore fought each other tooth and nail. It was however Gonzalez who finished the round in fashion and ousted Cuadras from his world title.
A bloody fight
The fight had been vicious. Gonzalez had a badly swollen right eye at the end of the fight while Cuadras had cut under his right eye. He had sustained the cut in the ninth round following a hook from his opponent. His cutman had however managed to minimize bleeding from the cut.
Gonzalez on his win
The 27 year old champion thanked Nicaraguan fans for their support after the match. He however downplayed his victory when asked about his mentor Alexis Arguello saying that he will never be better than Arguello and that he’s only a son and him his teacher. Arguello never managed to win any title in his fourth weight class. Gonzalez also acknowledged Cuadras as being good and strong and said it was only that he, Gonzalez, had been better tonight.
Gonzalez could stick to 115lbs
Having won the WBC Super flyweight title at The Forum and on the HBO, it is largely expected that Gonzalez would move back to 112lbs category from 115lbs. The boxer has previously experienced a fair share of struggles with weight. There are now talks of the new super flyweight champion taking on Japanese junior bantamweight champion Naoya Inouye. He has however said he is ready to face anyone but he first needs to take some bit of time off boxing.
