“Gallo” Estrada gains sweet revenge to win the WBC Super-Flyweight title
After a 14-month wait for a shot at redemption, Juan Francisco Estrada defeated Srisaket Sor Rungvisai by unanimous decision (116, 115-113 x2) to win the WBC Super-Flyweight title tonight in Inglewood, California. For the fighter known as “Gallo”, this was sweet revenge.
The former WBA/WBO Flyweight champion Estrada (39-3, 26 KO’s) started this fight sharp as a tack. Doing a beautiful display of boxing, the classy Mexican used his immense skill to set the pace from second one and dominate the early action.
Strangely, Sor Rungvisai (47-5-1, 41 KO’s) began the contest fighting orthodox. Even on the occasions in which he landed with power shots, the hard-punching Thai wasn’t able to stun Estrada.
The flow and pace set by the challenger continued throughout most of the fight. The 29 year-old Estrada was in the zone. Full of confidence, he even broke out the Ali-shuffle. On the other hand, the defending champion’s strategy was odd to say the least.
Continually fighting as a righty, Rungvisai’s balance was off. During portions of the bout, he was made to look silly at times by Estrada. Also, the aggression and fire we’ve seen from Sor Rungvisai during his two fights with Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez. as well as during the first fight with Estrada. was largely missing.
Finally fighting mostly as a southpaw in round ten, Sor Rungvisai started to find a home with his power shots. This begs the question of why didn’t he fight from the southpaw stance the entire fight. Finding his rhythm, the 32 year-old began to find a home for his left-hand and apply more pressure. A similar pattern happened in round eleven as Estrada, perhaps foolishly, stood there and fought instead of boxing.
However, in the final round, Estrada found his bearings. He fought with some sense and boxed to close the show. At the end of the fight, the pro-Estrada crowd roared in approval of what they saw from the challenger.
After the fight, Estrada said while he would be willing to have a third fight against Sor Rungvisai, his first option would be to engage in a unification bout at Super-Flyweight.
By: Michael Wilson Jr.
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