By Keith Idec
One of the things that makes Roman " Chocolatito" Gonzalez happiest about his success in the ring is that he knows late Nicaraguan boxing legend Alexis Arguello would’ve been very proud of his accomplishments.
Arguello, a three-division champion, became a father figure for Gonzalez before the onetime mayor of Managua died from what was ruled a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest in July 2009. The 28-year-old Gonzalez (43-0, 37 KOs), the WBC flyweight champion and No. 1 fighter on The Ring magazine’s pound-for-pound list, has become the best boxer from Nicaragua since Arguello won world tiles at featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight before losing twice to Aaron Pryor in 140-pound championship fights in 1982 and 1983.
“I believe that Alexis Arguello would be the happiest person out of all of my team, because he had a lot of trust in me,” Gonzalez said through a translator Tuesday on a conference call. “Alexis was like a father to me. I was like his son. I know Alexis would be so happy not just to see me be the pound-for-pound No. 1, but also to have won three world championships. So I know out of all my team, Alexis would be happiest one [about] all my accomplishments.”
Gonzalez will return to the ring Oct. 17, when he’ll defend his WBC 112-pound championship against Hawaii’s Brian Viloria (36-4, 22 KOs, 2 NC) in a 12-round fight at Madison Square Garden. Kazakhstan’s Gennady Golovkin (33-0, 30 KOs) is scheduled to meet Montreal’s David Lemieux (34-2, 31 KOs) in a 12-round middleweight championship unification fight for Golovkin’s WBA/interim WBC and Lemieux’s IBF 160-pound titles in a HBO Pay-Per-View main event that night.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
