At The Forum, Inglewood, California, Roman Gonzalez successfully defended his WBC Flyweight title by outworking a very tennacious McWilliams Arroyo. Official scorecards came in at 119-109 twice and 120-108, with Boxing Base tallying the action a little closer at 118-110.
Gonzalez, who has held onto his championship status since 2008, now bulks his unbeaten record to 45 wins, 38 knockouts, while Arroyo falls to 16 wins, 3 defeats, 14 knockouts. We’ll soon find out if Gonzalez will now jump up in weight to chase bigger fish at Junior Bantamweight; it would certainly be interesting to see how he handles characters such as Naoya Inoue and Carlos Cuadras.
Gonzalez soundly beat Arroyo tonight, but his challenger managed to land a great deal more punches than we’re used to seeing. Arroyo wasn’t able to match Gonzalez’s phenomenal workrate, but was able to hang with Boxing Base’s No.1 Pound-for-Pounder and enjoy considerable success, winning the 8th and 12th rounds. Arroyo fought out of his skin, moved incredibly well (despite losing the sole of his boot early on), but never did quite enough to edge most of the action. He deserves a ton of credit for his grit and fortitude in this contest, however.
This was yet another night which belonged to Gonzalez, and quite rightly so. The Nicaraguan looked comfortable from the get-go, fought at a furious pace, and looks to still have one of the best engines in the sport. What are your thoughts on Gonzalez vs Arroyo and the rest of the California card, readers? Fire away in the comments below.
