Photo by Will Hart
On Saturday, April 23, 2016, the consensus No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter and WBC Flyweight champion, Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (44-0 38 KOs), took on Puerto Rico’s McWilliams Arroyo (16-2 14 KOs) in the co-featured bout of the Gennady Golovkin vs. Dominic Wade fight card.
This marked the third time that Gonzalez played the lead-in roll for a “Big Drama Show” featuring Golovkin in the main event. The opportunities of fighting alongside Golovkin have thrust the little man from Nicaragua into the boxing spotlight and Saturday night, Gonzalez proved once again why he is one of the world’s best.
In the build up to the fight, Gonzalez spoke about being ready to move on and headline his own HBO card, hoping that his performance against Arroyo would warrant such a move.
“I believe that both fighters, [Gennady] Golovkin and myself, are both main events and I hope that after this fight they give me an opportunity to be my own main event.”
While Gonzalez put on an impressive and dominant performance against a game opponent, he may still benefit from playing the Robin to Golovkin’s Batman.
As was the case against Brian Viloria in October of last year, Gonzalez got off to a relatively slow start, while Arroyo came forward, determined to land digging shots to the body.
Gonzalez picked up the pace in Round 3, landing 39 power shots to 13 for Arroyo. Chocolatito successfully began pushing Arroyo back with precise hooks to the head and body.
One of the most remarkable points one can notice when watching Gonzalez work is the way he shifts his body on the inside, casually slipping punches and firing lasers at his opponent.
Although Arroyo showed tremendous heart throughout, he was left without a sole in Round 4–a shoe sole that is.
In what has to be one of the weirdest wardrobe/equipment malfunctions of all time, the sole to Arroyo’s right Addidas show came completely off, forcing his corner to tape his shoe for the rest of the fight.
My friend @gregbeacham sees Arroyo has taped the soles of both of his adidas shoes to hold the soles in place. Big right at the end by Roman
— Lance Pugmire (@latimespugmire) April 24, 2016
Arroyo stayed in the pocket for many of the rounds, but the cleaner and harder punches were consistently landed by Chocolatito.
Gonzalez landed 360 of a whopping 1,132 total punches, incuding 311 of 737–or 42 percent–of his power shots.
During the post-fight interview with HBO’s Max Kellerman, Gonzalez acknowledged just how tough of an opponent Arroyo was.
“It was a very difficult fight,” said Gonzalez.
“McWilliams moves very well and was able to avoid the punches. I wanted fight and brawl and counter, but is was difficult because he moves quite a bit and was hard to hit.”
Kellerman also asked Gonzalez who would present the most difficult challenge for him. Gonzalez, as is always the case, was humble in his response.
“Every fighter has hands. There’s no weak fighter, they’re all good. The most important thing is that for each fight, we come in great condition,” said Gonzalez.
While his 10-fight knockout streak came to an end, Gonzalez did earn a lopsided victory with scores of 119-109, 119-109 and 120-108.
Big fights loom on the horizon for Gonzalez who may be able to headline his own HBO card against a fighter like Juan Francisco Estrada, who Chocolatito beat by unanimous decision in November of 2012.
Tom Loeffler says a @chocolatitobox Estrada rematch on table for the Forum. Great LA fight like in Carbajal days
— Lance Pugmire (@latimespugmire) April 24, 2016
For now, Gonzalez moves to 45-0, 38 KOs and continues to be the perfect compliment to Golovkin’s Big Drama Show.
