Chocolatito's Manager Wants Immediate Rematch After 'Robbery'

By Keith Idec

Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez’s manager called his loss to Srisaket Sor Rungvisai a “robbery” when he arrived home to Nicaragua with Gonzalez on Monday.

Speaking to reporters at the Managua airport, Carlos Blandon also said he would demand an immediate rematch from the WBC because Rungvisai’s majority-deicision victory Saturday night in New York was commonly considered controversial.

“Since they stole the fight, we’re going to get the title back,” Blandon told El Nuevo Diario, a Managua newspaper. “We hope an immediate rematch comes. We’re going to see what’s going to happen.”

Gonzalez wants an immediate rematch, too, yet stopped short of calling his first professional defeat a robbery. The former WBC world super flyweight champion also said “we have no problem” if Rungvisai doesn’t give him an immediate rematch.

The 29-year-old Gonzalez (46-1, 38 KOs), who was the No. 1 fighter on most mythical pound-for-pound lists before Saturday night, overcame a first-round knockdown against Rungvisai (42-4-1, 38 KOs), who dropped Gonzalez with a right hand to the body. Gonzalez seemed to take control later in their entertaining, hard-fought, 12-round fight as Rungvisai started to fade on the Gennady Golovkin-Daniel Jacobs undercard at Madison Square Garden.

Rungivasai won the fight, however, on the scorecards of judges Glenn Feldman (114-112) and Julie Lederman (114-112). The third judge, Woleska Roldan, scored the fight even (113-113).

Referee Steve Willis also deducted a point from Rungvisai in the sixth round for intentionally head-butting Gonzalez. In the third round, what was ruled an accidental clash of heads opened a nasty cut over Gonzalez’s right eye.

Gonzalez’s handlers are convinced he did more than enough to remain unbeaten against a game challenger.

“It’s the best fight of his career,” said Wilmer Hernandez, Gonzalez’s trainer, “and doing that to his career is not fair to him.”

There was not a rematch clause in their contract because Gonzalez’s fight against Thailand’s Rungvisai was a mandatory defense of his WBC 115-pound championship. The WBC also had mandated before they fought that the Gonzalez-Rungvisai winner has to fight Carlos Cuadras next.

Mexico’s Cuadras (36-1-1, 27 KOs) lost a unanimous decision to Gonzalez on September 10 in Inglewood, California. But Cuadras also owns a technical-decision victory over Rungvisai.

Their May 2014 match in Mexico City was stopped following eight rounds due to a nasty gash over Cuadras’ left eye, also caused by an accidental clash of heads.

In adherence with the WBC’s heavily criticized accidental head-butt rule, Rungvisai had a point deducted for helping cause Cuadras’ cut. Cuadras won that fight on the scorecards of all three judges – Cathy Leonard (77-75), Mauro DiFiore (77-74) and Dick Flaherty (78-73). Cuadras won the same title from Rungvisai in that bout that Rungvisai won back from Gonzalez.

Cuadras defeated Mexico’s David Carmona (20-4-5, 8 KOs).by unanimous decision in a 10-rounder on the Golovkin-Jacobs undercard.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.