By Miguel Rivera
In the next few days, former four division world champion Roman 'Chocolatito' Gonzalez of Nicaragua will travel to Japan where he will define his future in the sport of boxing.
Gonzalez will head over there with his manager, Carlos Blandon, to sit down with their promoter Akihiko Honda of Teiken Promotions.
According to Blandon, at the meeting they will determine certain aspects that are still lacking from the team - like a new head trainer, despite training with Gustavo Herrera a few days ago, as well as determining the location and date of his return.
Gonzalez just went through the most difficult year of his entire career, where he started the year as the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing on most expert lists - and then suffered back to back defeats to Srisaket Sor Rungvisai of Thailand - who in the rematch last September scored a brutal knockout in four rounds.
"We are about to travel to Japan to determine these aspects [like trainer, return date]. We have not confirmed a lot of things, but soon we will," Blandón said to ESPN Deportes.
There has been a lot of speculation about Román's future but in the coming days everything will be decided.
In a recent chat with journalist Bayron Saavedra and the BoxNica page, 'Chocolatito' said that he was not interested in a world championship fight at the moment and that he hoped to have something quiet for his return after some tough years that were packed with high caliber fights.
Initially, Gonzalez (46-2, 38 KOs) was said to be a consideration for next month's Superfly 2 event in Los Angeles, but promoter Tom Loeffler dismissed that possibility - although he left the door open that Gonzalez could potentially become part of the undercard for the Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin card on May 5 - if that rematch is finalized.
Then it was said that Gonzalez was going to face WBA champion Khalid Yafai in a separate fight on a tentative date in the month of April, but that was also ruled out by members of Roman's team.