By Pablo Fletes, notifight.com
International matchmaker and agent Ricardo Rizzo has advised Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez (43-0, 37KOs), the flyweight champion of the World Boxing Council (WBC), to stay focused on building his name in the United States through HBO.
Gonzalez made his HBO debut in May with a two round destruction of former champion Edgar Sosa of Mexico on the undercard of Gennady Golovkin-Willie Monroe in Los Angeles, California.
Recently Gonzalez has received several offers, including a top position on Top Rank's planned pay-per-view in Mexico. The pay-per-view would be an independent venture in the fall.
"They say that Roman has offers to fight in Mexico, but why go back to Mexico. If you already fought on HBO, he should concentrate on fighting again in America," Rizzo said.
"When he was with [promotional firm] Prodesa, I had talked to Peter Nelson (HBO executive) to put him on their nightly shows. And now that this goal was achieved, so he must return to HBO to fight again. We can not compare Azteca TV with HBO."
"You can not go from a Mercedes Benz to a Volkswagen [in terms of the cards he is fighting on]. [With HBO] he can fight on the undercard of Golovkin, Wladimir Klitschko, the Canelo Alvarez, or some card put together by Golden Boy Promotions - because [Gonzalez's promoter] Mr. Honda has a very good relationship with them and with Bob Arum of Top Rank."