It won’t be what it was.
It probably doesn’t matter how good it gets in the ring.
When Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, and Roberto Duran faded from the scene in the 1980s, the depth of talent that followed them at middleweight and super middleweight was as good as anyone could ask for.
Roy Jones, James Toney, Gerald McClellan, Bernard Hopkins in the US, and Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank, and Steve Collins in the UK, among many others, did great work in the ring. They never reached the heights of global public acclaim the generation immediately before them did.
The intersection of stardom (relative to weight class) and ring quality can be tough to align.
For those who follow the lightest weight classes, the era of the ‘hardcore four’ at Jr. bantamweight has been a golden age experienced. It was always going to end. Recent outcomes indicate tomorrow will be in good hands.
This Saturday will be in good hands when four-division former titlist Roman Gonzalez faces reigning flyweight titlist Julio Cesar Martinez (DAZN, 8:30 PM EST).
It didn’t look like we were quite ready for tomorrow yet as 2022 got underway. The ten fight saga between Roman Gonzalez, Juan Francisco Estrada, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, and Carlos Cuadras was supposed to be hitting chapter 12 this Saturday. We were supposed to know what happened in a rematch between Cuadras and Sor Rungvisai.
We were supposed to be anticipating the rubber match between Gonzalez and Estrada.
We will inevitably see some combination of the four again before they’re done. Fate had different plans for the first half of 2022 and opened doors to the future.
Along with the big four, one element that has made this era at Jr. bantamweight so memorable is the supporting class around them. Kazuto Ioka, Donnie Nietes, McWilliams Arroyo, and Jerwin Ancajas have all had moments or a place in the title picture of the class. The status quo has been disrupted.
If big events come in threes, “Chocolatito” should be concerned this weekend.
The new faces have been winning.
Cuadras battled gamely but couldn’t outduel the younger, quicker Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez for a vacant WBC belt. Sor Rungvisai was forced from the bout for illness. Last Saturday, in yet another of a slew of fight of the year candidates in the class over the last half decade and change, Fernando Martinez upset IBF titlist Jerwin Ancajas.
Rodriguez and Martinez are fresh, undefeated pieces of the puzzle. Gonzalez faces something else in a man who has already proven his place on the world level.
The 34-year old Nicaraguan lost the Estrada fight when the reigning lineal king of the class went out with COVID. He could have taken a softer touch and waited for the biggest money fight available. Instead, already on the shelf for a year, Gonzalez (50-3, 41 KO) opted for 27-year old WBC flyweight titlist Julio Cesar Martinez (18-1, 14 KO).
Martinez is ranked number one at flyweight by both TBRB and The Ring and it’s the biggest chance of his career. However established Martinez already is, there’s a difference between winning a belt and genuinely arriving in the current landscape of the sport.
Lots of guys can win a belt.
Not everyone can hang a loss on a standard bearer in their time.
Will the new guys make it 3 for 3 or does the older man have at least one more in him? Based on his form against Estrada last year, Gonzalez still has more than enough of what made him a first ballot Hall of Famer when he’s done but a year of rust can accumulate quickly.
Then again, it wasn’t long ago that veteran Kazuto Ioka took another younger, potent offensive force in Kosei Tanaka and sent him back for more time at the learning table.
This is a hell of a crossroads fight with reasons to like both men. If Martinez arrives, we can start to wonder what he looks like against remaining veterans like Estrada and Sor Rungvisai as well as Rodriguez, Fernando Martinez and others.
But it will also be another sign that what was couldn’t remain. Gonzalez is past the point where losses can do much to hurt his place in history. He already gave at the office and what he, and his peers, have will make it hard for another generation to keep the fan’s fires as stoked as they have been for this rare era at Jr. bantamweight.
Old bull-young bull matches rarely have as much subtext as this one does.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
