Srisaket Sor Rungvisai’s highly-anticipated rematch with seasoned campaigner and former flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada takes place this weekend at the famous Forum venue in Inglewood, California.
The pair will once again contest for super-flyweight supremacy after their closely-fought encounter in the February of last year, where Rungvisai was the beneficiary of a narrow majority-decision verdict.
Rungvisai stunned the world in 2017 with two back-to-back victories – the second a chillingly violent knockout – over Nicaraguan consensus pound-for-pound great Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez, elevating himself to a top-ten ranking in the process.
The Thai southpaw carries concussive punching power in both fists, is almost absurdly strong at the weight, and is capable of making technically superior fighters falter under his relentless body assault.
However, he looked decidedly lacklustre in his last showing in October against Mexican challenger Iran Diaz, headlining a combat sports extravaganza in front of a vociferously supportive crowd in his native kingdom.
After a characteristically explosive start – where he visibly hurt Diaz on multiple occasions, Rungvisai seemed to tire whilst his resilient counterpart enjoyed sporadic success as the fight progressed into latter stages; scoring two flash knockdowns which were inexplicably ruled slips by the referee.
Gallo, meanwhile, will be hoping to capitalise on his opponent’s apparent decline while Rungvisai’s camp have attributed the relatively sloppy performance to a six-month layoff following personal issues.
Estrada is a tricky, surgical boxer-puncher, and is confident that he can make the necessary adjustments and become more accurate in order to exact revenge on Rungvisai, and potentially set up a mouthwatering rubber match to determine super-flyweight supremacy.
Undefeated Irishman TJ Doheny made Irish boxing history when he defeated Ryosuke Iwasa on away soil to become IBF World super-bantamweight champion. He now has the opportunity to repeat the feat in a unification match against WBA counterpart Daniel Roman, who impressively dispatched of Gavin McDonnell on an October Chicago card to defend his prized championship.
Having been elevated to WBA champion following Guillermo Rigondeaux’s audacious but unsuccessful move up to super-featherweight to challenge Lomachenko in December 2017, Roman showcased a varied punch arsenal, shot selection, physical strength and punching power to break down the notoriously tough McDonnell in the tenth round.
The winner of the unification fight – who bookmakers are inclined to believe will be Roman, though Doheny is comfortable assuming the position of underdog – will likely pursue an additional unification fight with Golden-Boy’s undefeated WBC champion Rey Vargas – a rangy, relentless combination puncher who also is associated with the DAZN network – in the not-too-distant future.
Charismatic super-middleweight prospect Anthony Sims Jr – born in Planfield, Indiana but currently fighting out of nearby Compton – will also be featuring on the card. The gregarious fan favourite and former amateur prodigy has accrued an umblemished record of 17 wins – all but one inside the distance – and impressed last time out in Peterborough with a dominant display, stopping tough Argentine Mateo Damian Veron in six rounds.
Article by: Navi Singh