By Miguel Rivera
Former four division world champion Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez (46-2, 38 KOs) is at the crossroads in his career.
At the start of the year, Gonzalez was the WBC super flyweight champion, had an undefeated record and he was regarded by most as the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing.
Now at the end of the year, Gonzalez is no long on any pound-for-pound list, his record is no longer perfect, and he suffered back to back defeats - going winless in 2017.
For years, Gonzalez had the appearance of an unbeatable force - until he moved up to the super flyweight limit of 115-pounds.
Gonzalez struggled to win a unanimous decision in last September's fight with Carlos Cuadras. He managed to walk away with the win, but his face was an absolute wreck.
Then in March, he defended his title against Srisaket Sor Rungvisai of Thailand. In the first round Gonzalez went down for the first time in his career. The fight had a lot of action, but Sor Rungvisai walked away with the victory and Gonzalez's WBC title.
A rematch took place in September, and this time Sor Rungvisai went right through Gonzalez. The hard-punching Thai scored two knockdowns in the fourth round - the second one knocking Gonzalez out cold for the count.
Now Gonzalez is back in training with an eye on capturing a world title again at 115.
There are many who believe that Gonzalez is no longer the same fighter at super flyweight and feel that he should move down to 112-pounds - and World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman is in agreement with that opinion.
"All the great champions lose, and he is one of those great., I'm not sure if the super flyweight division is the right one for him, maybe he wants to go back to flyweight where he has more power and endurance," Sulaiman said.
