By Haxel Ruben Murillo
It is better to be away from home and avoid distractions. Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez and his team will travel next Monday to San Jose, Costa Rica, where the triple world champion complete his preparation for the scheduled defense of his WBC flyweight title against Brian Viloria on October 17 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The fight will take place on the Gennady Golovkin-David Lemieux HBO Pay-Per-View undercard.
Going to Costa Rica was not the most desirable option, but it's the best option for now after ruling out the possibility of making a camp in Big Bear, California - because the sparring partners that Roman wanted to hire would have been delayed due to visa issues that would have lasted more than two weeks.
To avoid losing out on two weeks of sparring, Gonzalez declined to go to Big Bear and instead traveled to a neighboring country.
"We have to agree to see which of the sparring partners will travel to Costa Rica. Carlos Chocorroncito Buitrago is confirmed, though I wish to use him in the final stage because he is the fighter with speed that is very similar to Brian Viloria. At the moment I'm interested heavier fighters like Henry Maldonado and close to that," said Arnulfo Obando, the coach of Roman.
According Obando, the differences in training in Big Bear and Costa Rica will be minimal, but obviously the coach had preferred to go to America.
"Yes it was necessary to go to Big Bear for the altitude. Viloria should be working in that area. I liked the idea of Big Bear to get Roman in better physical condition," the trainer said.
"In Costa Rica we will spend nearly a month training in a gym of La Sabana. We may not return to Nicaragua, at least I'd like that to avoid distractions, but that will depend on the views of the team."