As the long-awaited rematch between Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada approaches, Boxing Social’s Luke G. Williams is revisiting, fight-by-fight, the nine-bout series between Gonzalez, Estrada, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Carlos Cuadras, which has provided boxing fans with a 21st Century equivalent of the 1980s Four Kings series. Today he reexamines the titanic first battle between Srisaket and Estrada from 2018…
Srisaket Sor Rungvisai W12 Juan Francisco Estrada (majority decision), February 24, 2018, Inglewood, California.
It tells you everything you need to know about the unwavering and consistent brilliance of the super-flyweight division over the last seven or eight years that – without hesitation and with a break of just five months – Srisaket entered this fight straight after two battles with Roman Gonzalez, while Estrada climbed into the ring fresh from a bruising war with Carlos Cuadras.
Never have four fighters more aptly summed up the credo of ‘any place, any time, anywhere’.
The headline attraction of ‘SuperFly 2’ in front of a raucous, Mexican-dominated crowd at the Forum in Inglewood, this was a bout which – unsurprisingly – saw the powerhouse puncher from Thailand and the canny counterpuncher from Mexico combine to produce a stone-cold classic – 36 minutes of fistic mayhem that, for this writer, had no credible rivals for 2018 Fight of the Year status.
From the opening bell, we were offered a striking and compelling contrast in styles, with Estrada’s swift footwork and counter-punching flurries offering the perfect counter-point to Srisaket’s constant desire to forsake the jab and instead walk his man down and overpower him with savage hitting.
After the duo shared the first couple of rounds, Srisaket then began to dominate, his shuddering shots to the Mexican’s head and body forcing the challenger backwards and keeping him off-balance. Whenever Estrada did manage to get his shots off, Srisaket either stepped back out of range or parried them with his gloves.
After seven rounds Srisaket was almost out of sight on the scorecards but then – improbably but magnificently – came the Estrada rally.
In the eighth, the Mexican’s sharp and stinging counters seemed to befuddle Srisaket at times, as Estrada finally began to gain a sure sense of timing and distance.
Estrada also boxed well through the ninth, tenth and eleventh, playing the masterful matador to Srisaket’s increasingly enraged and ragged bull, although the Thai remained dangerous, landing a big left at the end of the tenth.
Going into the final round, the fight was still up for grabs and both men let it all hang out – conjuring three minutes of breathless, non-stop drama.
Srisaket’s sledgehammer blows landed with regularity in the first 30 seconds of the round, but Estrada roared back, stunning the Thai with rapid shots to the head. For the last two minutes both men stood and traded relentlessly, despite clear signs of exhaustion in their heavy but ceaselessly swirling arms.
Both corners celebrated at the final bell, but Srisaket’s harder shots and more aggressive approach saw him deservedly take a majority decision verdict via understandable scores of 115-113 and 114-114 and an inexplicable 117-111, which was roundly booed by the crowd.
The overall punch stats which swung 194-189 in Srisaket’s favour in terms of total punches landed – told a similar story of a close contest between two supremely well-matched fighters.
Estrada – for his part – felt he had done enough to win: “The people are the judge and you can hear them say that I won,” he claimed. ” I thought I won the whole time out. If the judges saw it that way, then that’s the way it is, but I thought I won the majority of the rounds.”
A rematch seemed the natural next step. “I’ll fight anybody at 115. And I’ll fight Estrada again,” Srisaket – ever the warrior – declared, his face puffy and painful.
The two men would indeed meet again, but not before both of their lives and careers had taken some unexpected detours.