SAN DIEGO – Roman ‘Chocolato’ Gonzalez isn’t even close to being ready for the top level.
A world-class performance in a career filled with many saw Nicaragua’s Gonzalez dominate Julio Cesar Martinez en route to a twelve-round unanimous decision win on Saturday night at the Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California. The scores were 118-110, 117-111, 116-112 in favor of Gonzalez, a former four-division champion and former pound king who is looking to return to the championship picture after masterclassing in the DAZN main event.
Gonzalez was originally scheduled to face longtime rival and WBA “Super” junior bantamweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada (42-3, 28 KOs), who was forced to pull out after testing positive for Covid in January. Martinez stepped in with six weeks’ notice, agreeing to move up in weight as his WBC flyweight title was not on the line.
The bout was initially in danger of being canceled after Martinez was well above junior bantamweight and weighed 117 pounds on his first attempt at a fight that saw him move up one full division. Martinez returned less than two hours later but still scored 116.4 rounds, 1.4 over his contract limit, leading to heated discussions between both camps on how to proceed.
Martinez contributed at Saturday’s mandatory weigh-ins that same day, weighing in at 122.8 pounds, almost four pounds lighter than 10% more than what was contracted under California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) rules. The confusion at Friday’s weigh-in resulted in the forfeiture of 20% of his claimed $250,000 purse, with $25,000 going to Gonzalez in addition to his $725,000 reported salary, and the remaining $25,000 being given to the commission.
Martinez never seemed exhausted at any of the weigh-ins and was at full strength by the first bell. The 27-year-old Mexico City native took the fight to the legendary Gonzalez, who is seven years his senior but remains one of the most active punchers from bell to bell.
“I wanted to feel the power of Martinez,” Gonzalez told BoxingScene.com after the fight. “I told my corner that I want to feel his power in the first round and then make him feel my power. My corner didn’t want me to be subjected to (unnecessary) punishment.”
Gonzalez did just that, beating Martinez in the second round and never looking back. The two entered an entertaining third round that saw the crowd on their toes. Martinez stepped forward, pulling right hands off his confident jab. Gonzalez — a former strawweight, junior flyweight, flyweight, and junior bantamweight champion — upped the pace considerably, throwing right and back to the body and comboing overhand punches. There were chants of “ME-XI-CO” all over the place, trying to get Martinez back in the lead.
Martinez did just that early in the fourth round, using his jab to slow down Gonzalez’s attack and create space for his own combinations. Gonzalez was forced to cover as Martinez landed a flurry of left hooks and a right hand loop, some of which landed. Momentum shifted in favor of the former four-division champion, who bounced off the sweat on Martinez’s head after landing cleanly at the top near the end of the round.
As the fifth round began, shouts of “Choco” erupted as Gonzalez boxed on his toes, landing a continuous stream of punches. Martinez continued to switch back and forth between a regular punch and a southpaw purely defensively, with Gonzalez partially blocking or completely avoiding return left hooks and extreme right hands.
Martinez got off to a strong start in the sixth round, landing three right hands behind Gonzalez’s tight defense in the first minute. Gonzalez, who landed 39 of 101 punches in the round, responded with a right hand to take Martinez’s head off later in the round, Martinez landed a left hook, only to again leave himself open to Gonzalez’s right hand and an uppercut that appeared to hurt the flyweight champion .
Gonzalez pinned Martinez to the ropes midway through the seventh round, with Martinez not throwing back but daring his opponent to keep throwing, Gonzalez’s momentum briefly stalled after he slid to the canvas. Martinez showed restraint as he walked away from a defeated enemy, two gloves touching as a sign of respect.
At the end of the eighth round, Martinez looked devastated as Gonzalez showed no signs of relaxing in what was to be the twilight of his career. Martinez did his best to turn the tide in the ninth round, throwing right and left but leaving himself open to counter punches from Gonzalez right in the middle.
Martinez spent most of the tenth round touching the ropes with his back, and Gonzalez went on the attack. Gonzalez’s combinations and side-to-side moves on the inside proved too problematic for Martinez to solve, getting hit with a left hook and a right uppercut before he managed to bring the fight back to the center of the ring.
With the fight out of reach, Martinez needed a knockout in the twelfth and final round. He almost landed on the wrong side, and Gonzalez continued to push forward and landed almost at will – the fighters scored 58 connected strikes out of 129 total strikes. Martinez’s world-class chin kept him out of the canvas, but not out of the losing column.
“I’m very surprised he took that kind of punishment,” Gonzalez remarked after the fight, in which he landed 374 of 1,076 punches (35%), including a mind-boggling 346 of 682 power punches (51%), down from up to 182 of 713 (26%) for Martinez, including 168 of 451 power punches (37%).
A convincing decision in favor of Gonzalez resulted in Martinez’s first loss since his professional debut, after a 20-fight unbeaten streak, including active possession of the WBC flyweight title. However, he has struggled to make that weight in the past, along with injuries and illnesses that have hampered the reign of the otherwise entertaining title.
The next step remains unclear even with a return to flyweight as Martinez drops to 18-2 (14 KOs).
As for Gonzalez, there are many more lives to come in his long-destined career for induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. The uncrowned junior bantamweight champion improves to 51-3 (41 KOs) after winning his first since October 2020. The only fight in between was his controversial split decision loss to Estrada in their Fight of the Year rematch on March 13 last year at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
“Everyone knows I won that fight against Gallo Estrada,” Gonzalez insisted. “Honestly, the only fighter who really beat me was (Srisaket) Sor Rungvisai. I believe that I won every second fight.
Two separate attempts to schedule a rubber match fell victim to Covid. Gonzalez tested positive for the infectious disease after having to cancel a meeting scheduled for October 16 before Estrada was forced to close the camp in January this year due to mild symptoms.
The WBC diamond belt that was at stake should open the way for Gonzalez to Estrada, the WBC Franchise title holder in addition to the physical WBA Super belt. The WBA has ordered Estrada to next fight WBA “World” junior bantamweight title holder Joshua Franco in a title consolidation bout scheduled for June but not yet concluded.
Whatever happens to Gonzalez next will just add two Hall of Fame careers to him.
“My bosses will decide what to do next,” Gonzalez said. “Whatever they decide, the main thing is that they pay well for it.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer at BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox