Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez Knocks Out Edgar Sosa In Second Round

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. has been mostly unchallenged as the world’s finest boxer for more than a decade. Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez may have created a debate.

Flyweight Roman Gonzalez made his HBO debut Saturday and it was an impressive one, knocking down Mexican fighter Edgar Sosa three times in the second round on his way to a successful defense of his WBC title at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Gonzalez forced the referee to call the fight at 2:37 into the second. This effort elevated Gonzalez’s record to 43-0 with 37 knockouts and polished his reputation as an elite champion.

Gonzalez may not be the pound-for-pound champion yet, but it can be argued that he deserves to be in that discussion after this dominating victory.

Gonzalez, 28, started the fight quick, dominating the first two minutes of the opening round, but slowed down in the last minute. He came out swinging in the second round, knocking down Sosa in each minute of the round. The fight was ended after the third knockdown.

“He’s good,” Edgar Sosa told Yahoo Sports after the fight. “He surprised me, but he’s a very good fighter. I can’t tell if he’s the best because it only went two rounds. If the fight had gone longer, I would know more.”

CompuBox numbers had Gonzalez landing 72 of 130 punches; Sosa was not as accurate, 14 for 106.

Sosa is a veteran fighter who has won many bouts against strong fighters. He was the former WBC Light Flyweight with a record of 51 wins, nine losses, and 30 knockouts. Sosa came into Saturday with two straight wins over two unknown fighters, Carlos Melo and Omar Salado. Before those fights, Sosa was not victorious against Japanese boxer Akira Yaegashi in a hard-fought 10-round bout. In September, Roman Gonzalez defeated Akira Yaegashi in a dazzling performance capped off with a knockout in round 9.

Despite being unkown to audiences in the United States, Roman Gonzalez is considered by most experts to be one of the top five pound-for-pound boxers in the world today.

Before Saturday, it had been three years since Gonzalez’s last fight on American soil. After Saturday’s brilliant performance, on such a grand stage, fans probably will not have to wait much longer to get another taste of the sweetness that is “Chocolatito.”

“With the grace of God and through my training with Alexis Arguello, I was able to put on a performance like this,” Gonzalez said after the fight. “I am so happy to be here on HBO. I’m very happy with my performance. He was a tough fighter, but my power made the difference. I want to fight Juan Estrada next, hopefully on HBO and hopefully in the United States.”

Gonzalez said the decision to face Estrada is “all up to his promoters.”

A knockout by Gennady Golovkin followed this fight as the main event, as documented by Inquisitr.

[Image Source: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images]