Nicaraguan Roman Gonzalez (34-0, 28) got a much tougher than expected bout whe he took on fearless Mexican Juan Francisco Estrada (22-2, 18) in a defense of his WBA Light Flyweight title that deserves to be mentioned as one of the genuine fights of the year.
The opening round saw Gonzalez starting very slowly as he put pressure on Estrada though didn't throw a lot as he allowed Estrada to tag his guard time and time again. In the last 45 seconds or so of the round however Gonzalez stepped on the pedal and literally stole the round with a dominant display of aggressiveness. Over the following two or three round Gonzalez really turned up the heat and it seemed as if we were almost certainly going to have an early finish.
Amazingly the fight just started to warm up and every time Gonzalez would land a series of shots, Estrada would come back with his own flurry as the two men started to beat the stuffing out of each other in a good old tear up. Sadly for Estrada he was spending periods of time on the ropes where Gonzalez was really taking advantage especially with his bone crushing body shots. Despite taking massive numbers of shots to the body Estrada was fighting back and showing not only bravery but the true spirit of a world level fighter.
Whilst most bouts slow down, this just got better and better as both men gave it there all and took a huge amount out of each other. Sadly for both men their defenses were shown to be seriously lacking, however their heart and chin (and bodies) proved to be made of stern stuff and they both managed to see out the distance in genuinely one of the must watch fights of the year.
Although all the rounds from 3-12 were hugely competitive it just seemed that Gonzalez was doing just enough to claim the majority and that was reflected on the judges score cards which all favoured the Nicaraguan by notable margins.
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