By Miguel Rivera
As previously reported on BoxingScene.com, Juan Francisco Estrada officially vacated his WBA flyweight belt. Estrada has been dealing with a bad hand injury which has kept him on the shelf since September 2015.
Promoter Fernando Beltran of Zanfer Promotions has now confirmed that Estrada, besides dropping his WBA title, has also sent notification that he;s vacating his WBO flyweight titles.
Estrada told BoxingScene.com a few days ago that his right hand was fully healed and he was ready to make his mandatory defense of the WBA title against Japan's Kazuto Ioka. Those plans have obviously changed.
According to Beltran, the 26-year-old Estrada (33-2, 24 KOs) is indeed moving up to the super flyweight division.
The main target is newly crowned Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez, who won a twelve round decision over Estrada in 2012 at junior flyweight. Gonzalez recently made the jump to super flyweight and captured the WBC title from Carlos Cuadras last Saturday night in Los Angeles.
Beltran says Estrada will make his 115-pound debut on October 8th. In the coming months, Beltran hopes to get Estrada a final eliminator with Cuadras - and the winner lands Gonzalez.
"It became official, he's vacated the two titles. The idea is to have 'Gallo' Estrada, whom the fans crave, get in the ring and fight on October 8 and then in December. And we hope that the World Boxing Council will give us the opportunity to go against Carlos Cuadras in an eliminator to secure the fight with Chocolatito Gonzalez," Beltran told ESPN Deportes.
"People are eager for the return of 'Gallo' and he needs to make up for lost time. In the next 14 months, there will be a lot more activity and we want to arrive at super flyweight first and then go for Cuadras and Chocolatito. And if they do not give us that opportunity, we can go with 'Nica' Concepcion who is going through a good period in his career."