Caught between the desire to stage a rubber match between Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman Gonzalez and their own mandate that Srisaket Sor Rungivsai get the next title shot, the WBC elected to compromise. The sanctioning body today elevated Estrada to “franchise” champion, approved the trilogy fight with Gonzalez, and ordered Srisaket to rematch Carlos Cuardras for the standard title. The two winners “shall fight each other to determine the sole WBC World Champion of the Super Flyweight Division.”
Eight years after Gonzalez (50-3, 41 KO) defeated Estrada (42-3, 28 KO) by competitive-but-clear decision to defend his WBA title, the pair fought again to unify Estrada’s WBC super flyweight title and Gonzalez’s WBA equivalent. This time around, “El Gallo” claimed a questionable split decision, including an egregious 117-111 score that earned judge Carlos Sucre a suspension from the WBA,
Srisaket (50-5-1, 43 KO), who previously split a pair of bouts with Estrada and has been his WBC mandatory challenger for over a year, made clear that he wouldn’t step aside for a trilogy. This prompted the sanctioning body’s newest set of shenanigans and set up a long-brewing rematch with Cuadras (39-4-1, 27 KO). “Principe” ended Srisaket’s 26-fight winning streak back in 2014 via technical decision in what would be the Thai’s last defeat before his rematch with Estrada, and he’ll enter their second meeting on the heels of his own unsuccessful rematch with the champ.
SuperFly Never Die.