Chocolatito-Estrada II Scoring: Staff Scorecards & Roundtable

Photo Credit to Ed Muholland/Matchroom Boxing

It had been eight years in the making, but Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez and ‘El Gallo’ Juan Francisco Estrada did it again on March 13, 2021 with yet another all-time classic.

Like their previous outing at light flyweight, both pound-for-pound fighters absolutely stole the show, this time at super flyweight, whereupon they set record-breaking amounts of volume thrown in a high-octane, all-out war that’ll stand among the best bouts waged across all combat sports once the year is over. It would be difficult to say there could have been a finer way to honor the memory of the recently deceased Marvelous Marvin Hagler - and yet both men proved able and willing to the task. At the end of twelve ferociously competitive rounds, Juan Francisco Estrada walked away with a contentious split decision to retain his WBC and The Ring belts. Despite Gonzalez’s sportsmanlike acceptance of the decision, spectators and media alike seemed to decry the decision. Even the winner himself didn’t seemed too convinced that he could walk away with confidence. The fight was demonstrably close and competitive - was calling the result a robbery justified or not? Some of our boxing staff decided to revisit the fight and score each stanza whilst appreciating the sheer brilliance of both fighters on display.

Round 1

Dan Albert: 10-9 Estrada. No argument against. His left hook to the body is money and crafted through different angles to create other offense or enforcing his counters. Chocolatito started to build later. Estrada’s lead hand is money at preventing him from doing so at the moment.

Lukasz Fenrych: 10-9 Estrada. Not much to debate here, Chocolatito just hadn't got started yet and Estrada didn't need to do a lot to nab the round, mostly poking at range with jabs and straight rights.

Ollie Raderecht: 10-9 Estrada. A typically uneventful opening round. Estrada came out more aggressively, immediately looking to box on the front foot, although  Chocolatito’s evidently superior footwork and upper-body movement made that nigh on impossible for the Mexican. González barely threw with any intent for much of the round, though. Gallo’s lead hand won him the round, stabbing Chocolatito’s high guard with the jab and occasional straight right hand, and hooking off the jab well. Neither fighter landed much of note, and González already looked the more efficient fighter, but Estrada snuck the round on volume.

Round 2

Dan: This is one of the hardest rounds for me to score and it’s a story of two halves. Estrada starts incredibly strong and manipulates Gonzalez’s guard into more significant shots. The second half, however, has Chocolatito on fire and start to punish Gallo’s resets off a catch-and-pitch counter game of his own. I think this one comes down to preference. Me? 10-9 Chocolatito (19-19)

Lukasz: 10-9 Estrada, 20-18 Estrada. Very close and this one may be controversial (I scored it for Gonzalez live, barely). Starts in a similar pattern to the first round but Gonzalez's defence is smoother and Estrada lands less, though Gonazalez still isn't doing a lot of his own. Then at about the half way stage he starts closing the distance and getting through Gallo's defence and seems to be taking over. However in the final thirty seconds, although still taking place in Chocolatito's wheelhouse, Estrada starts landing good counters and I think does juuuust enough combined with the opening minute to sneak the round.

Ollie: 10-9 González (19-19). Estrada won the first half of the round, again, on volume, and began landing to the body with regularity (lead left hook to the body & right hook off the jab under Chocolatito’s high guard). However, González subtly caught, blocked and slipped most of what Gallo threw to the head, and the Nicaraguan bossed the final minute and a half, closing the distance and landing the cleaner, tighter work. González landed the best punch of the fight up to that point, slipping outside Estrada’s jab and landing a clean right hand to the jaw over the top. Overall, González began picking off Estrada’s lead hand very effectively, and deserved the round in my view.

Round 3

Dan: 10-9 Estrada. His counterpunching, especially with the left hook, is on point and closes off avenues for Gonzalez to work. His cross-arm guard and lead shoulder are also proving increasingly difficult for Chocolatito to get through – the threat of counters is allowing Gallo to keep touching him with that jab and set up uppercuts/hooks to the body and then upstairs. 29-28 Estrada.

Lukasz: 10-9 Estrada, 30-27 Estrada.. The fight score feels wider at this stage than the fight itself is, but another round without an awful lot of debate to it for me: Estrada is able to keep range and also start working the body and using that to draw the guard down and hit the head: Chocolatito is busy but doesn't land an awful lot.

Ollie: 10-9 González (29-28 González). I differ from Lukasz and Dan in my view of the third round. It’s a very close round, and one with immense defensive ability on display from both. Estrada kept up the bodywork, namely the left hook, but I edged the round to González since he kept Gallo under pressure for most of the round, frequently landed the 1-2 (to body & head), and when the pair exchanged up close, the Nicaraguan came out on top. 

Round 4

Dan: Incredible round, especially in the second half where both were stunned consistently. Chocolatito is trying to draw the counters, then stepping in or making Estrada throw first, then countering the counters. Both had consistent moments of offense and work done. I think 10-9 Gonzalez, but another close one, on the basis of the fight going more his way. 38-38.

Lukasz: 10-9 Gonzalez, 39-37 Estrada. The round where Chocolatito got going. His head movement made a real appearance defensively for the first time, he started bouncing at the knees for some level changes that threw of Estrada's timing, and he was able to repeatedly draw the Mexican's lead hand down in anticipation of bodyshots or a framing battle and land clean right hands over the top of it.

Ollie: 10-9 González (39-37 González). An action-packed round featuring some of the best work from both men, and a clear round for the Choc man on my card. Choco’s upper-body movement forced Estrada onto the back foot and drew out the Mexican’s offence to counter. González consistently made Estrada fall short with the 1-2 then countered while remaining on the front foot. Additionally, the round featured more pronounced head movement and increased bodywork from González (switching between body & head affected Estrada’s rhythm), and Gallo simply could not compete with Chocolatito’s catch-and-pitch counterpunching in the pocket. Estrada pierced Choco’s guard with a rapid four-punch combination half way through the round, and that itself made it closer, but not enough to take it away from González. 

Round 5

Dan: 10-9 Chocolatito. He’s getting control of the entries and endings of the exchanges and has the better positioning on the inside to set up his straights or overhands. 48-47 Gonzalez.

Lukasz: 10-9 Estrada, 49-46 Estrada. A real nip-and-tuck round where despite all the punches thrown, defence was the most notable component. Estrada made Gonzalez miss a lot by dropping back just enough, Gonazalez had some very smooth moments where he ducked under Estrada hooks in the pocket. Gave it to Estrada on the strength of some solid bodywork early, that served in part to temporarily nullify the level changes of the previous round.

Ollie: 10-9 González (49-46 González). Not much argument against a Chocolatito round here. González found success turning Estrada into the left body hook on the inside, and the Nicaraguan’s constant level-changing appeared to really trouble El Gallo (jab to the head-straight right to the body) and allowed Choco to proactively duck Estrada’s counterpunching. Chocolatito’s better positioning and sense of distance were evident in the fifth round, wasting very little compared to Estrada who struggled to land the 1-2.

Round 6

Dan: Another astonishing round. Problem with scoring here is that Gonzalez will have some of the cleaner head shots, Estrada’s body work is hellacious and constant. The landing percentages are comparable. Personally, I think Estrada’s body work barely outweighed Gonzalez here and he outworked him by a few more margins. Razor-close 10-9 Gallo Estrada. 57-57.

Lukasz: 10-9 Gonzalez, 58-56 Estrada. Gonzalez is able to take Estrada's jab away for the first time, and without it, much of Estrada's work is predicted and lands on the gloves. He does work the body some but I've given the nod to Chocolatito's volume of work.

Ollie: 10-9 Estrada (58-56 González). The sixth might be the tightest round of the fight, with Estrada competing on the inside better than any previous round, and Chocolatito flowing between offence and defence excellently from the outside. I edged it to Estrada on the basis of more consistent work across the round and effective body punching which temporarily slowed down the pressure of González. Furthermore, Estrada’s right uppercut worked well to split Chocolatito’s guard off both the body hook and jab.

Round 7

Dan: Estrada is turning Chocolatito on the inside to score or draw him into counter hooks. On the outside, the overhand or touch-touch-overhand is his money maker. Gonzalez is right in there and attacking Estrada whenever the latter has to reposition, but this round goes 10-9 El Gallo, 67-66 Estrada. Sensational action.

Lukasz: 10-9 Estrada, 68-65 Estrada. This time it's Estrada who manages to find a home for a straight right over Gonzalez's left- often, by throwing it off-rhythm from an unexpectedly long range that Chocolatito in this round couldn't find a reaction to. He paired this with some very strong bodywork to take the round.

Ollie: 10-9 Estrada (67-66 González). Great round for El Gallo, featuring a superb right hand over the top, set up an off-tempo double jab, then feinting to the body before changing the trajectory of the shot to connect on Chocolatito’s jaw. Estrada continued to pepper González’s body with the left hook and up close, Estrada’s lead uppercut — which he repeatedly turned Choco into — served him well. Chocolatito made it close by landing at a similarly high rate, but El Gallo’s cleaner combination punching meant he took the round clearly.

Round 8

Dan: Chocolatito’s footwork and ring generalship on the backfoot was incredible this round, drawing Estrada to him and then repositioning as El Gallo swung at air. Roman’s feeder lead hand to set up the right straight is putting in the work and controlling the taller man’s reactions. 10-9 Chocolatito. 76-76.

Lukasz: 10-9 Gonzalez, 77-75 Estrada. One of the quieter rounds in the fight, which, unexpectedly, Gonzalez wins mostly by boxing on the back foot and picking Estrada off with his jab. Relatively clear to score, as what Estrada threw was mostly caught on gloves.

Ollie: 10-9 González (77-75 González). In a less action-filled round than the previous two, González — who looked tired at the end of the seventh — controlled much of it. Chocolatito began applying pressure, but for the latter half of the round fought on the back foot, out-jabbing Estrada from the outside, which in turn served to set up the right hand. Estrada matched González’s volume, but couldn’t match the Nicaraguan’s accuracy (due mostly to Choco’s impeccable defensive display).

Round 9

Dan: This round is nip-and-tuck the whole way through and it seems to really come down to what you prefer. I prefer Estrada’s counters and body work, though you can’t go wrong with Gonzalez attacking and punishing the resets or in longer exchanges. 10-9 Estrada. 86-85 Estrada.

Lukasz: 10-9 Estrada, 87-84 Estrada. Another close one in which I'll lean Estrada because he's able to land some good clean bodyshots by circling around before engaging, in amongst an otherwise very tight and scrappy round.

Ollie: 10-9 Estrada (86-85 González). A razor close round, and probably the quietest since the opening few. I just about gave it to Estrada due to more consistent bodywork and sharper counterpunching. González kept busy and had the advantage when the pair strung out an exchange, but didn’t land a great deal of note at range.

Round 10

Dan: I’m going 10-9 Estrada again, albeit I do want to give Chocolatito’s lead hand some serious props because it’s throwing off Estrada’s rhythm and forcing exchanges to keep going. Having said that, one minute into the round, Estrada really took it to Gonzalez on the inside with the body work and hit some of his best counters of the fight off his pitch-catch cross arm guard, threatening with uppercuts too. 96-94 Estrada.

Lukasz: 10-9 Estrada, (97-93 Estrada). Some rather odd corner advise from Gallo's coach resulted in him thinking he needed the knockout and spending the last three rounds in Chocolatio's pocket world trying to find it, but in this one at least I thought he was able to use his size advantage to keep Gonzalez moving backwards and off-balanced, leaving him openings to land more of his own shots while catching much of what the smaller man threw on his neat active guard.

Ollie: 10-9 González (96-94 González). Pocket action resumed in the tenth, and Chocolatito excelled. From my perspective, González clearly took the round, essentially, on output alone. Of course, he made use of that output, throwing off Estrada’s rhythm with that feeler jab, getting the better of the infighting (pivoting with the uppercut, catch & counter with the left hook), and once again having success picking off Estrada’s jab by throwing the right hand over the top. What’s more, Choco managed to narrowly slip and block a fair deal of Estrada’s offence, whose bodywork faded a little.

Round 11

Dan: Chocolatito’s lead hand and head positioning below Gallo’s is really helping him keep the exchanges going and keep touching Estrada to force counters to counter or to make Estrada reset. 10-9 Gonzalez. There are margins separating them sometimes. 105-104 Estrada.

Lukasz: 10-9 Gonzalez, 106-103 Estrada. In this round Estrada was no longer able to push Gonzalez back, and to boot, Chocolatito was able to repeatedly catch him coming forward and snap his head back with solid clean connections. With Gonzalez also this time winning the framing battle when it came into play, preventing Estrada from getting his up-and-down attacks going smoothly, this was a clear round for the Nicaraguan.

Ollie: 10-9 González (106-103 González). Estrada came out with aggressive intent in the penultimate round. El Gallo wasn’t able to consistently push González back due to the Nicaraguan’s lead hand and upper-body movement throwing him off and forcing him to reset, on top of Choco’s dissuading counterpunching. I saw a fair few people score the eleventh for Estrada last weekend, but he missed a lot and overall I saw Chocolatito land the cleaner, more impactful work, albeit in another close round.

Round 12

Dan: I‘m not sure there’ll be a better round this year. Incredible. Anyways, longer exchanges are going to favor Chocolatito here because they provide him more chances to counter and that’s what happened. 10-9 Chocolatito. 114-114.

Lukasz: 10-9 Gonzalez, 115-113 Estrada. A fantastic round in which both guys determined to leave absolutely everything in the ring. Gonzalez gets the nod because, in a round dominated by incessant pocket exchanges in which batteries were running dry and both were increasingly running on pure instinct, it started to show that Chocolatito's instinctive defensive reactions in close are sharper than Estrada's, whose head movement and guard somewhat vanished.

Ollie: 10-9 González (116-112 González). An instinctive pocket war took place in the final round, and being the tighter counterpuncher with superior natural timing and defensive acumen up close, Chocolatito mostly dominated the action. He consistently made Gallo pay for sloppy flurrying and proved the markedly better infighter. Incredible action on display, and the clearest round of the fight for either fighter. Not much else to say other than what an outstanding finish to the front runner for FOTY.

Final Scorecards and Takeaways

Dan: 114-114 Draw. I literally can’t believe they had a fight that was as good, if not possibly better (In my opinion it was) than their first. Good luck to 2021 to have a fight with more combined skill and action than this one. I think this fight is inherently hard to score for a couple of reasons. First, the sheer volume and length of the exchanges are going to make rounds with constant engagements hard to determine, especially if the margins are so slight. Two, some rounds come down to preferences between certain work. Do you prefer Gonzalez’s attacks upstairs or Estrada’s body work? Do you prefer consistent success of one guy or big bursts from the other? This guy won the first half, the other the second half. The list goes on. Three, it is incredibly hard to tell what does land and what doesn’t and how much impact some shots have in relation to another. There are many times Estrada, for instance, gets hit on the backfoot, and the collision will look worse than it is because he’s moving back and resetting than actually getting connected. And that’s not even mentioning the defense and how many shots are parried. Regardless, I think a draw is, in this writer’s opinion, the most justifiable scorecard. I can see it 7-5 either way fairly easily. 8-4 feels like too much a stretch every time I’ve scored it. Fight of the Goddamn Year.

Lukasz: 115-113 Estrada. A superb back-and-forth fight in which several rounds could have gone either way, for me the result was ultimately determined by the fact that, for the most part (round 8 and the final round aside) Gonzalez was not really scoring much when the fight was at range but Estrada was consistently in it when the fight was in close. Both fighters can walk away proud, though, a superb display of both skill and will and a fight that will live long in the memory.  

Ollie: 116-112 Román González. That’s the third time I’ve watched the fight and I am yet to change my scorecard. 3, 6, 9 and 11 were particularly very close, and I split them 2-2. At best I could see a draw, but an Estrada win just isn’t plausible in my view. Chocolatito’s more economical work won the day for me. Regardless of the scoring, however, Estrada and Chocolatito combined for another special display of incessant action of the very highest level. The scoring soured it for me at the time, but I will look back on the all-time great fight I witnessed for longer than I will dwell on the decision. Lukasz said it - both can walk away proud given the skill and will they poured into the ring. In a similar way that the official result shouldn’t take away from Chocolatito’s sublime performance, the outrage surrounding it shouldn’t take away from Estrada’s.

Final Fight Site Result: Split Draw

As you can see, this fight led to a difference of opinions about the results and which were the most possible. Nonetheless, our staff agreed that this was boxing at its absolute peak. Not since the likes of Josh Taylor vs Regis Prograis and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez vs Gennady Golovkin II has the sport had an intense, highly technical battle. It was definitely one for the ages and it took two of the best boxers - no, fighters - in the world to truly make it happen.

What did you think of the fight itself? Who do you feel like had the fairest and most accurate scoring? What do you think is next for both fighters? Let us know!