Another high-profile title fight should await Srisaket Sor Rungvisai whether Juan Francisco Estrada or Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez wins their rematch Saturday night.
As the WBC’s mandatory challenger in the super flyweight division, Sor Rungvisai is expected to face the Estrada-Gonzalez winner next for the WBC and WBA 115-pound championships. Sor Rungvisai has a tune-up fight scheduled for Friday night in his native Thailand, but he is heavily favored to beat Kwanthai Sithmorseng in their 10-rounder.
The 34-year-old Sor Rungvisai obviously has more to prove versus Estrada than Gonzalez. Estrada defeated him by unanimous decision in their 12-round rematch in April 2019 and took the WBC super flyweight title from Sor Rungvisai that the Thai southpaw won from Gonzalez two years earlier.
“The second fight against Estrada was very close,” Sor Rungvisai said. “I do accept the judges favored Estrada, but if I am to fight him again [in] a trilogy, I will beat him with no doubt.”
Sor Rungvisai defeated Estrada by majority decision in their first fight, a 12-rounder three years ago at The Forum in Inglewood, California, also the site of their second fight. The then-unknown Sor Rungvisai beat Gonzalez in each of his two previous appearances, including a fourth-round knockout in their September 2017 rematch at StubHub Center in Carson, California.
“Roman Gonzalez at the time was the best pound-for-pound-boxer in the world,” Sor Rungvisai said. “I prepared very well for both of those fights and it was great to beat him twice.”
Gonzalez was a favored, undefeated four-division champion when Sor Rungvisai upset him by a 12-round majority decision in March 2017 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
“When I fought against him, you could say I was a rookie,” Sor Rungvisai said. “I was an inexperienced kid. He was a world champion at the time. And now he is [a champion again], but so am I, and I think [it would] be a really tough fight for both of us.”
The WBC declared late in December that Sor Rungvisai must receive his mandated shot at the Estrada-Gonzalez winner by August or September because he stepped aside to allow their rematch to move forward as a 115-pound title unification fight.
DAZN will stream the bout between Sor Rungvisai (49-5-1, 42 KOs) and Sithmorseng (50-7-1, 27 KOs) on Friday night from Workpoint Studio in Bang Phun (9:30 p.m. ET). The 38-year-old Sithmorseng, a former WBA minimumweight champion, has been knocked out in four of his past seven fights.
On Saturday night, DAZN will stream the much-anticipated Estrada-Gonzalez rematch as the main event of a show from American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Mexico’s Estrada (41-3, 28 KOs) and Nicaragua’s Gonzalez (50-2, 41 KOs) will fight for Estrada’s WBC and Gonzalez’s WBA super flyweight titles. Gonzalez, 33, defeated Estrada, 30, by unanimous decision in their 12-round WBA light flyweight championship match in November 2012 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
ADD COMMENT VIEW COMMENTS (4)