Even Juan Francisco Estrada seemed surprised to hear Michael Buffer announce that he had won yet another rematch on Saturday night.
Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez apparently overcame Estrada in his incredible fight, but two judges marked his exciting fight for the 12-round, 115-pound championship for Estrada. Judge Jesse Reyes attributed Gonzalez a 115-113 victory, but he was rejected by judges Carlos Sucre (117-111) and David Sutherland (115-113) at the main event at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Sucre somehow scored nine rounds for Mexican Estrada, who won seven rounds according to Sutherland. Reyes scored seven rounds for Nicaragua’s Gonzalez, who lost in the split decision.
“I think I did enough to win,” Estrada said Chris Mannix of DAZN during his post-fight interview in the ring. “Chocolatito is a great fighter and I think he deserves the trilogy. I knew it was a close fight. I didn’t know if I was up or down [through 10 rounds], but I needed to close the fight in the last two rounds. “
CompuBox counted 74 more punches overall for Gonzalez, whom they credited for landing on Estrada, 391-317. Gonzalez landed more energy punches (352-297) and more jabs (39-17) than Estrada, according to CompuBox.
CompuBox also credited Gonzalez (1,317) and Estrada (1,212) for throwing more combined punches – 2,529 – in this fight than any other 115-pound fight tracked by the company.
Estrada’s debatable victory could lead to an eventual rubber match with the former pound-for-pound king.
Regardless, Estrada (42-3, 28 KOs) retained his super flyweight WBC title and took the 115 pound WBA championship from Gonzalez (50-3, 41 KOs). The 30-year-old Estrada also avenged the last of his three professional defeats by beating Gonzalez, who defeated Estrada by unanimous decision in his fight for the 108-pound, 12-round title in November 2012 in Los Angeles.
Before Saturday night, he had already beaten Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Juan Carlos Sanchez Jr., the first and third opponents to beat Estrada.
His victory over Gonzalez moved Estrada towards a third fight against Ser Rungvisai (50-5-1, 43 KOs). The Thai southpaw is the mandatory challenger for the WBC belt that Estrada took from him by winning a unanimous 12-round decision in April 2019 at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
Ser Rungvisai was the only opponent to beat Gonzalez before Estrada defeated him.
Gonzalez was your typical courteous personality in defeat.
“Whatever happened, it had to happen, but I had a great fight,” said Gonzalez. “I would have been happy with the result anyway. I did my job The only guarantee is from you. “
Gonzalez and Estrada fought at an absurd pace during the 12th round. Gonzalez’s right hand stunned Estrada with just under 50 seconds to go on his second fight.
Estrada still came back to shoot hard shots at Gonzalez, but he couldn’t hurt Gonzalez.
Estrada landed a right hand at the start of the 11th round. They exchanged blows of strength for the rest of an action-packed 11th round.
Gonzalez landed several short shots while fighting Estrada inland during the 10th round. Estrada was not as accurate as Gonzalez in those three minutes.
An aggressive Gonzalez landed several right hands in the first two minutes of the ninth round. Gonzalez’s left hand unbalanced Estrada with just under 40 seconds to go to the ninth round.
A Gonzalez right-left combination fell with about 10 seconds on the clock in the eighth round. Estrada chased Gonzalez for much of the eighth round, but he didn’t land many clean punches in those three minutes.
Estrada exploded Gonzalez with his right hand about 45 seconds into the seventh round. Estrada hit hard shots, often in combination, later in the seventh round, but Gonzalez often fired back with his own powerful punches.
Estrada landed a right uppercut that made Gonzalez step back and paw in his left eye with about 1:20 left on the sixth round. A right-left combination of Estrada landed with about 35 seconds to go in what was an impressive sixth round for him.
Gonzalez and Estrada fought at a breakneck pace throughout the first half of the fifth round. Gonzalez hit Estrada with his right hand with about 1:20 to go on Thursday.
Pabon warned Gonzalez for a low blow with just over 40 seconds remaining for the fifth round.
Combination of four Road punches connected with 1:25 to go in the fourth round. Moments later, Gonzalez punched Estrada with his right hand.
Gonzalez landed another right hand a few seconds later, which supported Estrada on the ropes.
Estrada followed his left hook to the body with a left hook up with about 1:20 to go in the third round. A right hand by Estrada supported Gonzalez in the final 10 seconds of the third round.
A right hand by Estrada knocked Gonzalez out on the ropes with just under a minute to go into the second round. A left-right combination by Gonzalez landed just after the middle mark of the second round.
Estrada and Gonzalez lost most of their strikes during what amounted to a first tactical round.
Keith Idec is a senior writer / columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.