Srisaket Sor Rungvisai removed any doubt about whether he?s a champion Saturday, knocking out Roman ?Chocolatito? Gonzalez in the fourth round at StubHub Center.
Sor Rungvisai, after edging former pound-for-pound No. 1 Gonzalez by decision in the Nicaraguan?s first loss in March at Madison Square Garden, first dropped Gonzalez early in the fourth with a powerful right hand. Seconds later, 1 minute, 18 seconds into the fourth, Sor Rungvisai smashed Gonzalez in the head with another power punch that sent the former four-division champion crashing to the canvas.
Gonzalez was down on his back for minutes before raising his head.
?I felt like I was being robbed,? said Estrada (36-2), the former flyweight champion who roared back to score a 10th-round knockdown of Cuadras, the former super-flyweight champion, en route to the narrow victory. The triumph gives Estrada a mandatory World Boxing Council title shot at Sor Rungvisai.
In his U.S. debut, Japan?s Naoya Inoue eliminated such intrigue in his World Boxing Organization super-flyweight title defense, battering Antonio Nieves with vicious jabs and body shots in a TKO victory.
Nieves was knocked down in the fifth by a left that struck the challenger directly on the belly, and after another round of abuse, Nieves? corner stopped the fight. Inoue improved to 14-0 with 12 knockouts.
?He?s a brave warrior, but I was too good for him,? Inoue said through a translator. ?I will fight anybody.?
Nieves endorsed the champion by saying, ?He?s very strong, very quick. He keeps throwing the same combinations and they never stop. He?s relentless.?
Estrada-Cuadras was anything but one-sided.
Estrada required a major rally after Cuadras (36-2-1) performed with crisper, more active punches than he showed last March in a sluggish victory in New York, striking Estrada with a combination of body blows and effective uppercuts in the first round.
Cuadras closed the second with a power punch to the jaw, frustrating Estrada?s plan to win with counterpunches. The attacking Cuadras backed Estrada to the ropes early in the third, but the former flyweight champion answered with the action so many anticipated from the card, energizing the venue.
The busy punching from Cuadras was tough for Estrada to solve, but as that activity waned, Estrada pounced with a series of impressive power punches, including one flush on the jaw in the seventh that seemed to turn the momentum.
?He surprised me with his quickness in the early rounds,? Estrada said. ?Once I figured it out, I beat him pretty bad.?
The toll of that power set up Estrada to knock down Cuadras in the 10th with a clean power punch right on the nose, and Cuadras? repeated attempts to win rounds by staying busier were betrayed by Estrada?s more telling blows to close the bout.
The 10-8 round in the 10th decided the cards of judges Tim Cheatham, Max DeLuca and Edward Hernandez Sr.
Cuadras wasn?t convincing in saying, ?I lost my balance? during the knockdown, repeating his criticism of California judging after losing closely to Gonzalez in 2016, and adding, ?I?m very upset.? ?I trained hard for four months,? Thailand?s Sor Rungvisai said. ?I wanted every Thai person to know what I came here for.?
Juan Francisco Estrada not only had to endure the crazed punching energy of Carlos Cuadras, but he also had to weather a slip when the winner was announced.
Hall of fame ring announcer Michael Buffer first said all three judges had scored the super-flyweight bout 114-113 in Cuadras? favor, then corrected himself and announced that Estrada had won by those scores.
