@ Flyweight. How do you see this fight going? Would Chitalada be able to keep Gonzalez away with his jab, power and footwork? Or would Chocolatito be too relentless for the Thai Ali? Hard to decide, although this would have been a very interesting fight.
Interesting call! I will hope that some more knowledgeable posters chime in as this is real interesting to me. I watched the first Chitalada vs Jung Koo Chang fight this week and hope to watch the 2nd later in the week. Chitalada looked very good against Chang losing a decision in just his 4th pro fight. So initially I think it is a close affair. But I need to watch more Gonzalez as well as I am still in my beginning stages of appreciating the flyweight division. I hope this gets a few responses as I am eager to learn more about them.
Chitalada was damn impressive at his best. Gonzalez is a real joy to watch and I would suggest watching more of him as well. The lower weight fighters tend to have the more exciting, crowd pleasing styles with well rounded skill sets. It’s always fun to speculate mythical match ups between them because there’s just so many great small fighters from different eras that would have matched well with each other
Lovely clash of styles with Chitalada's mini-Ali stylings and battering ram jab vs the classic pressure fighter approach of Gonzalez. Let me think about it....
Sot's jab was a monstrous weapon, closer to being a straight right power-wise than a jab. The Liston of the flyweights. I think he'd have success knocking Gonzalez out of his stride with it, though Roman has a decent jab himself when he uses it and would be doing his best to slip it and get into closer quarters where Chitalada was less refined. That said, he was a ridiculously huge flyweight dropping huge amounts of weight to make the cut and when he wasn't lethargic from being drained (a potential problem against a skilled pressure fighter) he was strong and not easy to throw around or bully. His inside game was a lot less multi-faceted than some but he dealt quite well with pressure fighters in spite of it; he was a fiery little ******* and not afraid to stand and scrap and hit hard enough to fight nearly as effectively that way as he did on the move. His power at fly was possibly similar to Gonzalez's actually in terms of one punch clout imo. If it becomes more of a trading exchanges attrition type fight then it ain't one-sided for Gonzalez; Chitalada would be happy to oblige I reckon. Interesting scenario in that case, I feel. Chitalada fought well against Chang in their first fight and was competitive despite losing, and Chang was more skilled and faster than Gonzalez though nowhere near as heavy-handed. It's probably a close fight and I could see them having a trilogy to decide. I'm leaning toward Chitalada slightly at his best I think.
Chitalada had some really lethargic performances, mainly due to heinous weight cuts. But he could fight on the inside and his savage jab is arguably the best ever at flyweight, excluding Harada. Gonzalez was cutting from around 126lbs so was hardly small himself despite having a smaller frame. Chocolatito was technically well-rounded although I was never sold on his power above 108, much more of an accumulative puncher. Likely similarly competitive to the Bernal series, they would probably split it. If it’s late career Sot (Chang was robbed against him in the rematch IMO) Gonzalez absolutely dismantles him. As for that jab I assume Sot was a southpaw in Muay Thai, though I’d have to check. Payakaroon was the opposite, an orthodox fighter converted to a portsider for his western boxing matches. TLDR; Chitalada via extremely close decision in a highly competitive fight.
This would be a split series. I think at their best, Sot might squeeze a decision. He would have to be peak, though.
