Comments Thread For: Chocolatito: I Want To Fight Yafai, Not Ruling Out Inoue Clash

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

As previously reported on BoxingScene.com, former four division champion Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez (46-2, 38 KOs) is very interested in a fight with WBA champion Kal Yafai (22-0, 14 KOs), who is promoted by Eddie Hearn of Matchroom. Yafai has a defense scheduled on October 28 against Sho Ishida. If he pulls through, Gonzalez would like to get him in the ring on a date in February - which is around the time that HBO is targeting the idea of staging a second event which showcases the super flyweight division.
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[ShoulderRoll]

Why not fight Inoue in Japan on the New Year's Eve show?

[Hmabshir]

dudes done as a fighter. that second knockout no way he should be coming right back into the ring. at least wait a year to recover.

[OctoberRed]

Stay away from both. Take a few tuneup fights to get your **** together.

[TheBigLug]

Good fight v Yafai. Isn't Hearn working with HBO now too?

No reason it can't happen. I'd rather see him fight a fairly good comeback fight before facing another champion though because if he loses against a champ, one of those champs wont get credit for beating him because everyone will say he's shot.

If he comes back against a decent level tune up and looks good, it will be better that way for everyone.

[Boxing Logic]

They should have made the Inoue fight immediately after Cuadras. Instead, they just had to try to "marinate" it, and look what happened, now that matchup will never be what it could have been. Not that the fights with Sor Rungvisai weren't good, they were, but they weren't what Chocolatito-Inoue could have been. Then, after a spectacular fight that Inoue would have won, for argument's sake, you could have done Inoue-Chocolatito after that, and eventually Inoue-Sor Rungvisai.

So in essence, all the same fights, but in the proper order to actually deliver to fans the fight they wanted to see most as its best, Inoue-Chocolatito. I'm not sure whose idea it was to give Chocolatito three tuneups at a much bigger than natural weight class all against top 5 guys in the division and two of the biggest punchers in the division... that was the perfect recipé to burn out Chocolatito just in time to ruin the Inoue fight. Well done!

Not that I prefer when promoters make three tuneups against bums instead to avoid exactly that problem, no that is even worse. The point is, don't make three tuneups at all. The first Superfly card, the Chocolatito-Cuadras card, should have had Inoue-Estrada on the undercard to start with. That's your one introduction on HBO to see how spectacular Inoue is, and how talented Chocolatito is. That's all you need. Next card, Inoue-Chocolatito. That's how it's supposed to be done. Or heck, even Chocolatito-Viloria at 112, why wasn't Inoue on that card at 115? Then HBO could have already hyped up "once Chocolatito moves up, he can fight Inoue." Then if you really needed a second card to hype up the fight before making it on the third card, you could have put Inoue on the Chocolatito-Cuadras undercard and done Chocolatito-Inoue on the Golovkin-Jacobs undercard instead of Chocolatito-Sor Rung Visai.

The fact that the way HBO had it scheduled was that the Chocolatito-Inoue fight was only supposed to happen in Chocolatito's either fifth or sixth fight on HBO, all against big punchers, is crazy. What did they expect to happen? It was always going to wear out Chocolatito, and make the Chocolatito-Inoue fight one-sided, even if Chocolatito hadn't lost!

But I guess that's how HBO wanted it! That's how they operate, isn't it? Chocolatito is old, while Inoue is only 24 and has another 8 years to make money for HBO. So as usual, HBO didn't want the fight to happen with both boxers at their best. They didn't want to deliver the best, truest product. What they wanted was to deliver an Inoue win. So what better way to do that than wear out Chocolatito in tough fights before making the Inoue fight? It's just like they did with Canelo-GGG, the exact same strategy. Instead of giving fans the fight at its best, they wait to make the fight until the younger, future cash cow fighter will win.

Welp, this time they waited too long. Now they can't pass the torch to Inoue at all because they waited so far past the "best by" date (as usual) that Chocolatito passed it to a 30 year old unknown Thai guy. Yes, he can pass it to Inoue now, but that's not the same, is it?

No wonder boxing is in decline. It seems even the networks with their millions of subscribers, who of all parties should be the ones looking to put the best product out there, don't even care about the quality of the fights either. Even the networks now are in the business of manipulating the outcomes of fights in order to set up future PPVs and such. Very disappointing. And now it's another potentially classic fight down the drain, wasted, ruined, just like Gamboa-Juanma, just like Mayweather-Pacquiao, just like Canelo-GGG, just like Kovalev-Stevenson, heck, just like just about every potential classic matchup of the last decade... and people wonder why a sport is declining when every time it has a rare opportunity to offer up something special and memorable, it wastes the opportunity and disappoints its fans instead!

I mean, Inoue-Chocolatito would have been one of the most intriguing, most talked about, most action-packed, most high-level superfly fights in the history of the division... and they ruined it. Just like Canelo-GGG could have been Hagler-Hearns 2.0, but they ruined it. Just like Floyd-Pacquiao could have been SRL-Duran 2.0, but they ruined it. The sport, and those in positions of power to watch over it, just keeps doing this, and I don't understand why. All it does it take money out of the sport long-term, and ruin the sport. Is short term manipulation of results really worth all that? Why not take a page from UFC's book and just make the best fights? Stop manipulating every short term outcome, and just let the fights carry the sport to new heights, which they would if only they weren't constantly being manipulated and if their quality wasn't being sacrificed every time in order to ensure certain winners. I don't get it!

[Edward90]

Why not fight Inoue in Japan on the New Year's Eve show?

Would you expect him to fight Inoue 3-4 months after getting his clocked cleaned? I expected him to take a tune-up to get his confidence back... I think Inoue is the best in the division. He would finish what's left of Roman..

[Sickmerch1990]

Yafai is a big guy in that weight class and a solid hitter think romans getting knocked out again age as caught up with him quik be a good fight though hope it gets made

[Combat Talk Radio]

Would you expect him to fight Inoue 3-4 months after getting his clocked cleaned? I expected him to take a tune-up to get his confidence back... I think Inoue is the best in the division. He would finish what's left of Roman..

Well, maybe that's what's best. I mean we're still trying to get Roy Jones to hang em up after numerous brutal KO's. Maybe we need someone to knock Choco out of the business for good. I wish it'd be Minny Pacquiao again...but Inoue'll do.

[Sadiqkingofko]

Inoue-Gonzalez is a great fight, I always favored Inoue, I don't agree with the other posters that Gonzalez is done, I give him a 25% chance against Inoue, but he can Yafai