Jesse Bam Rodriguez’s stoppage of Juan Francisco Estrada last night effectively ended an era. The previous guard of Chocolatito Gonzalez, Sisraket Sor Rungvisai, Carlos Cuadras and Estrada did battle against each other a combined total of 10 times in the weight class. With those four fighters now all well into their 30s and three of the four being vanquished by Rodriguez, who is indisputably number one in the division now, it seems right to look back on this previous golden era. From Gonzalez’s win over Cuadras to win a world title in a fourth weight division when he was still unbeaten back in 2016 through to the third fight between Gonzalez and Estrada at the end of 2022, it was arguably the best period in the history of the super flyweight division. What fights stand out from that period and given that they all fought each other (and often more than once), who was the best of that period? Where does each fighter place in the division’s history?
Exactly what came to mind before, it was great era, Rungvisai, Cuadras, Estrada and Gonzalez, all great eras come to an end unfortunately, but it’s great that they all fought eachother at their peaks (the main 3 at least). In terms of accomplishments, it’s Roman Gonzalez without a doubt, but h2h, I think Rungvisai was the best on his day at Super Flyweight, his size did have a fair bit to do with that though tbf. Another thing I did not add, Kazuto Ioka is a similar age to those, but still at top level mainly because he hasn’t been in the wars they have and wasn’t around at that time anyway, he’s probably got the best chance to beat Rodriguez now, although I wouldn’t pick him.
For the relatively short period that he peaked, Rungvisai may have been the most formidable at 115lbs. P4P Gonzalez was the best and ranks the highest based on their respective career achievements in all weight divisions.
IMO, Sor Rungvisai reached the highest peak of the bunch during his brief run as champ, but was always destined to burn out quickly due to the amount of punches he took + already being in his 30s when he won the title.
Estrada-Cuadras 2 is the best action fight of all those that happened between the four of them even if the stakes weren’t quite as high as in some of the other matchups. It was an incredible war.
Those 4 made that division hot. It was a stacked division and a great era of super flyweight. It was like the smaller version of the Fab 4 in a way. It would have been nice to have seen Chocolatito vs Cuadras rematch, SSR vs Cuadras rematch, or SSR vs Estrada rubber match.
The series that won’t be forgotten. This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected
Juan Francisco Estrada vs Carlos Cuadras 1 & 2 This content is protected This content is protected Chocolatito vs Sor Rungvisai 1 & 2 This content is protected This content is protected
Carlos Cuadras vs Sor Rungvisai & Chocolatito This content is protected This content is protected Juan Francisco Estrada vs Srisaket Sor Rungvisai 1 & 2 This content is protected This content is protected
True but it’s not often that all the possible matchups happen and more than once in most cases. Plus, Gonzalez beat Cuadras pretty clearly so I can understand the lack of clamour for a rematch in that one.
Great era that left us a legacy of great fights personally I think Gonzalez was the best since he beat Cudras and I thought he won the 2nd Estrada fight and 1st Rungvasi fight but each fighter showed they were amazing and you can argue who won each of their fights pretty thoroughly.
