Roman Gonzalez (42-0, 36 KOs) is a native of Nicaragua where boxing has never been a big sport outside of the great Alexis Arguello and it's not often we see outstanding talent come from the Central American country. On Saturday night he will defend his WBC flyweight title against Edgar Sosa (51-8, 30 KOs) on HBO as the undercard for Gennady Golovkin's middleweight title defense.
Gonzalez previously held the WBA strawweight (2008-10), WBA junior flyweight (2011-12) belts before making the move up in weight and eventually winning the WBC flyweight title from Akira Yaegashi, who was considered to be the 'lineal' champion of the division.
Gonzalez has grown quite the underground following in the sport despite lack of mainmedia attention because of the devastating style that has led him to knock out 86% of his opponents under a very impressive undefeated record that stands with 42 wins. His right hand, that could come from any angle, has been destructive and a key to a lot of his wins.
Recently, work ethic seems to have been forgotten in the sport of boxing as we have seen too many fighters coming in overweight or out of shape. 'Chocolatito' is one of the most active fighters in the world having fought an outstanding nine times in the past two years, giving exciting knockout performances in each.
Chocolatito has fought the toughest of opponents that include the likes of Brian Viloria and current WBA/WBO flyweight champion Juan 'Gallo' Estrada. A title unification rematch with Estrada seems imminent especially being at a weight higher than their past encounter at 108 lbs that ended up being a fight of the year candidate despite not being shown on major American television networks.
After this Saturday, the world should be well aware of who Roman Gonzalez is and why he is one of the very best in the world.