Roman Gonzalez-Juan Francisco Estrada II on HBO Radar?

by Steve Kim

Roman Gonzalez defends his WBC flyweight title on Saturday night at the Forum in Inglewood, California, versus McWilliams Arroyo. The undefeated 'Chocolatito' (44-0, 38 KO's) has spoken of the desire to be more than just an opening act for Gennady Golovkin as he is once again this weekend.

One possible fight that would perhaps merit him headlining his own HBO card would be a rematch with Juan Francisco Estrada, who since losing to Gonzalez in a spirited bout in November of 2012, has gone on to become a unified belt-holder in the flyweight division.

"First fight was a great fight and I think people look at Estrada's career and see that he's improved in some ways, people have gotten a greater appetite to see Roman fight now that he's been on HBO a few times. it's a wider audience for that fight,"said Peter Nelson, the Sr. V.P. of HBO Sports, who was instrumental in getting Gonzalez on the network last year.

Nelson added,"There's a wide audience for some other fights that are out there for Roman Gonzalez, as well."

There is a chance that Gonzalez, who has already won titles in three weight divisions, eventually moves up to 115-pounds. And in that weight class is the highly regarded Naoya Inoue from Japan who holds the WBO title.

"I think if you take a look at (Alexis) Arguello and his legacy, what that represents and how personal it is to Roman Gonzalez, having been kind of a mentee, an apprentice to him. I think that looking at a fourth weight divisional title, it's something that comes into the mix for him at some time,"explained Nelson."But again, we're going to look to Saturday night and not past it to see what Arroya brings to the table and then we'll see where we go from there."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com