Juan Francisco Estrada waited nearly ten years before he was given a shot at revenge. While the wait may have been long, it was also worth it.
Both Estrada and former pound-for-pound star Roman Gonzalez met in the main event slot at the American Airlines Center in Dallas Texas. After sharing the ring with one another nearly a decade ago, neither man would be interested in a feel out round.
Estrada started off fast. The WBC super flyweight champion owned the center of the ring and immediately let his hands go. The first two rounds appeared to be banked by Estrada but Gonzalez was seemingly just getting warmed up.
After finding his distance, the multiple division champion began letting his hands go. Estrada found little success in the third and Gonzalez followed that same blueprint in the fourth.
With things starting to heat up, Estrada could no longer sit back and allow his man to get his shots off first. Instead, he began outboxing Gonzalez and was consistently first to the target. As the rounds ticked by, picking a winner became almost an impossible task. With that said, it appeared as though Gonzalez was just one step ahead.
Despite putting forth what appeared to be a winning effort, all three judges scoring the contest ruled in favor of Estrada via unanimous decision. While their contest was close throughout, the numbers pointed favorably in the direction of Gonzalez as he out-landed his opponent 391 to 314, threw more punches overall than his man 1,317 to 1,212 and also connected on a higher percentage of his punches, 30% to 26%.
Still, Estrada walked away with his WBC title still wrapped safely around his waist. Now, next up will more than likely be a third matchup against Wisaksil Wangek later on this year.
