Pound for pound king and WBC flyweight champion Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez drew a legion of media and fans to the weekly World Boxing Council press conference in Mexico City.
While his highly anticipated potential opponent - WBC super flyweight champion Carlos "EL Príncipe" Cuadras - was on a conference call from his training camp in California. His father Rosario attended the conference to represent his son, in a convivial atmosphere peppered with jokes between the two champions...one in the flesh and the other very much in spirit.
With the in-house Teiken negotiations still unresolved, both undefeated fighters are in full agreement that they want and need very generous purses.
Roman who's looking too chubby to yet be in top fight shape, says he wants to fight by the end of September. He insists that a fight against Cuadras would also be for intense professional pride. And although it would be a stress and pressure test, he himself fears no man.
Triple division champion Roman says it remains to be seen if he'll carry his explosive punching power up to this next division. But one of the strategies for the Cuadras fight would be to try and neutralize Carlos' natural speed advantage, by landing clusters of numbing punches on him.
Cuadras (35-0-1, 27KOs) is also very confident of handing Gonzalez (45-0, 38KOs) his first defeat as a pro.
"I will leave only 112 pounds if they give me the opportunity to go for a fourth title. It was not anything simple [to get to this point], every beginning has costs, but it was worth it to get to where we are today. We deserve a good purse [for this fight]. We struggle to get to where we are, I'm seeking those goals, and I know that everything is achieved with patience," Gonzalez predicted.
Carlos Blandon, manager of Roman, said: "Today we are very interested in the fourth title but we know that both fighters deserve a good purse. There is no date or opponent confirmed, but we are interested in that fight and hope Mr. Honda and HBO reach an agreement. God willing we will fight in the United States again, either Los Angeles, Las Vegas or New York."
