WBC champ Juan Francisco Estrada hasn’t seen action since heroically overpowering Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez in last December’s rubber match, but what’s cooking may be worth the wait. ESPN’s Salvador Rodriguez reports that “El Gallo” is in talks to face WBA champ Kazuto Ioka on New Year’s Eve.
While they’re working to finalize what would instantly become one of the hottest fights on the schedule, bloviator-in-chief Mauricio Sulaiman tells Rodriguez that Carlos Cuadras will meet Pedro Guevara for the interim title. The pair sit behind Gonzalez in the rankings and could make for an interesting scrap, as Cuadras is Cuadras and Guevara is a former light flyweight champ only losses came by split or majority decision to John Riel Casimero, Yu Kimura, and Kenshiro Teraji.
Both Estrada (44-3, 28 KO) and Ioka (30-2-1, 15 KO) are on the tail ends of phenomenal careers, but seem to bounce back from every stumble with a vintage performance. Estrada went from robbing Gonzalez in their rematch and barely scraping his way past Argi Cortes to earning a well-deserved victory over “Chocolatito,” while Ioka’s shaky performance in his first fight with Joshua Franco gave way to a decisive victory in the second.
With Junto Nakatani carrying the torch for the next wave of super flyweights, it’s good to see the old guard continue its tradition of brutalizing each other nonstop. Superfly never die.