by Elisinio Castillo
The team behind former four division world champion Roman 'Chocolatito' Gonzalez is very interested in a showdown against Filipino veteran Donnie Nietes for the vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) super flyweight world title, according to statement coming from vice mayor of Managua, Enrique Armas.
If a deal can get done, the fight would be targeted for a date in June and the vice mayor would like for the contest to take place at the modern Alexis Argüello Sports Center in Managua, Nicaragua.
The announcement was made by Armas after holding a meeting with the president of the WBO, Francisco Valcárcel, who hours before had offered Gonzalez a chance to fight for the world title of 115 pounds - which became vacant after Japanese star Naoya Inoue officially dropped the title for a move to the bantamweight division.
Gonzalez, once regarded as one of the best "pound for pound" fighters in the world, announced that he would remain in the super flyweight division although he acknowledged that his lack of experience in the division was a contributing factor to his two consecutive defeats against hard punching Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in 2017.
'Chocolatito' was the minimumweight champion (105 pounds) and flyweight champion(108 pounds) under the World Boxing Association (WBA), and the flyweight (112 pounds) and super flyweight (115 pounds) champion under the World Boxing Council (WBC).
This would be the first time that Gonzalez would go after a WBO world title.
Gonzalez, a native of Managua, has a 46-2 record with 38 bouts won by knockout.
For his part, Nietes had held the WBO title at 105 and 108-pounds. He is currently in the flyweight division and holds the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title, with a record of 40 wins, 1 loss and 4 draws.
Nietes will also defend his IBF title on February 24 against Argentine Juan Carlos Rebeco in Los Angeles as part of the Superfly 2 card. The bout will be Nietes' debut on HBO, where Gonzalez has been featured often over the last few years.
