It has taken almost eight years but WBC super flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada 41-3 (28) believes his upcoming rematch with WBA champion Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez 50-2 (41) at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on March 13 will be an even better fight than their first battle.
Estrada and Gonzalez first clashed in November 2012 in Los Angeles, with Chocolatito successfully defending his WBA junior flyweight title via unanimous decision.
Mexican star Estrada, 30, has established himself as the number one fighter at 115-pounds and underlined his status with a thrilling 11th round KO win over Carlos Cuadras in October in Mexico City, climbing off the canvas in the third round to beat his fellow countryman for the second time in his career.
Former pound-for-pound number one Gonzalez, 33, recorded his own impressive victory on the same night by outpointing hungry young Mexican Israel Gonzalez in the first defence of the WBA crown that he ripped from Kal Yafai with a clinical KO win in Texas in February.
Now the pair go toe-to-toe once again with super flyweight supremacy on the line. Estrada believes that he’s the man to beat the second time around and that the rematch will be even more exciting than the first fight.
“I am stronger and have more desire than the first fight,” said Estrada. “We are both champions and we are going to want to win this fight.
“In the first fight, I was 21 years old and I had no experience of big international fights. He was a pound-for-pound star at that time but now I think this time it favours me.
“We are fighting two weight classes above the first fight, so it is already very different. I know that I can win this time.
“I know it’s a tough fight and I think it will be a better fight, but I have already faced him, I know his qualities and I feel that I can beat a fighter who has been knocked out.”
Estrada and Chocolatito clash on a huge night of action in the Lone Star State with their battle one of three world title bouts.
Jessica McCaskill 9-2 (3) defends the undisputed world welterweight crown she wrested from Cecilia Brækhus 36-1 (9) in August in a rematch, while new Matchroom Boxing signing Hiroto Kyoguchi 14-0 (9) defends his WBA and Ring Magazine world junior flyweight titles against Axel Vega 14-3-1 (8).
