Tag Archives: arroyo

Posted on 02/23/2018

By: William Holmes

On Saturday night, Superfly 2 will take place at the Forum in Inglewood, California and will feature several of the best super flyweight boxers in the division today.

The first Superfly card featured a stunning upset by Srisaket Sor Rungvisai over longtime pound for pound kingpin Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez and the super flyweight division features some of the best pound for pound boxers today.

Photo Credit: HBO Boxing Twitter Account

The undercard will feature a WBA Flyweight title fight between Brian Viloria and Artem Dalakian. The winner of that bout could be a future opponent for any of the main card fighters.

The following is a preview of all three televised fights.

Donnie Nietes (40-1-4) vs. Juan Carlos Reveco (39-3); IBF Flyweight Title

The opening bout of the night will be a title fight between Filipino Donnie Nietes and Argentinean Juan Carlos Reveco.

Nietes has been a world champion since 2008 and first held a title in the minimum weight division. The problem with Nietes is that he has fought mainly in the Philippines and has not faced significant opposition, despite the fact he has had a long title reign.

Nietes is already thirty five years old and his opponent is thirty four years old. Both boxers are considered by most to be near the end of their prime. Reveco is giving up about an inch in height and about two inches in reach to Nietes.

Nietes is not known for his power. He has stopped twenty two of his opponents, and he only has one stoppage victory in his past five fights. Reveco has nineteen stoppage victories, and zero stoppage victories in his past five fights.

Reveco has been to Japan to compete in world title fights, but mainly fights in Argentina. He has fought twice in 2017 and once in 2016. Nietes only fought once in 2017 and twice in 2016.

Nietes has been a world champion since 2008 and has defeated the likes of Edgar Sosa, Raul Garcia, Moises Fuentes, and Gilberto Medina. Most of his opponents would be relatively unknown to most American boxing fans.

Reveco’s resume is also lacking that big win to tout. He has defeated the likes of Felix Alvarado, Karim Guerfi, and Masayuki Kuroda. He held the WBA World Flyweight Title for about two years. His losses were to Kazuto Ioka twice and a loss early on in his career to Brahim Asloum.

Nietes does have some fanfare in the Philippines but at the age of thirty five it’s unlikely he’ll ever catch the same kind of popularity and fanfare of Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao. Nietes has the talent to pull off the victory on Saturday, but it’s likely his next fight will be against another competitor on Saturday’s card that will be highly favored over him.

Carlos Cuadras (36-2-1) vs. McWilliams Arroyo (16-3); Junior Bantamweights

This is the only bout of the night that is not an official title bout. But Carlos Cuadras is one of the best contenders in the super flyweight/junior bantamweight division.

Arroyo is thirty two and is three years older than Cuadras. They both are the same height, but Cuadras will have about a two inch reach advantage on Arroyo.

Both Cuadras and Arroyo had success in the amateur level, but only Arroyo represented his country in the Olympics. Arroyo represented Puerto Rico at the 2008 Olympics and won gold at the 2009 World Amateur Boxing Championships.

Cuadras fought twice in 2017 and twice in 2016. He has twenty seven knockouts on his resume but only has one stoppage win in his past five fights. Arroyo fought zero times in 2017, once in 2016, and once in 2015. He has three stoppage wins in his past five fights.

Arroyo’s inactivity is of concern. He has lost two of his past three fights. His losses so far in his career were to Roman Gonzalez and Amnat Ruenroeng. He also lost early on in his career to Takashi Okada. Arroyo does not have a lot of big victories on his resume. He defeated the likes of Ronald Ramos, Miguel Tamayo, and Foilan Saludar.

Cuadras has been very active and fought two very close decision losses to Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman Gonzalez. He has victories over David Carmona, Luis Concepcion, Wisaksil Wangek, and Victor Zaleta.

Wisaksil Wangek is also known as Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, the man who fights on Saturday’s main event and the man who recently beat Roman Gonzalez.

Arroyo’s inactivity and losses in recent fights are big negatives that are hard to ignore. Cuadras should be able to walk out the victor.

Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (44-4-1) vs. Juan Francisco Estrada (36-2); WBC Junior Bantamweight Title

Rungvisai became a well known name in the boxing community when he won a stunning majority decision over Roman Gonzalez in March of last year and then followed it up with a career defining knockout over Gonzalez in their rematch.

While his power and conditioning cannot be denied, he still has readily apparent weaknesses that technical boxers should be able to exploit.

Rungvisai, a southpaw, is four years older than Estrada. Rungvisai will also be giving up about an inch in height and about two and a half inches in reach.

Rungvisai fought twice in 2017 and five times in 2016. In activity will not be an issue for him. Three of the past five fighters he faced were making their professional debut at the time. Estrada fought twice in 2017 and once in 2016.

Rungvisai notable victories were his two over Roman Chocolatito Gonzalez. He had no other notable victories prior his fights with Chocolatito. Three of his losses were early on in his career to Akira Yaegashi, Yushin Yafuso, and Kenji Oba in Japan. His only other loss was to the co-main event participant Carlos Cuadras.

Estrada’s only losses were to Roman Gonzlaez in 2012 and to Juan Carlos Sanchez in 2011. He has defeated the likes of Brian Viloria, Milan Melindo, Giovani Segura, Hernan Marquez, and Anuar Salas.

Rungvisai was able to win HBO’s Fighter of the Year in 2017, but he’s facing another talented opponent on Saturday in which he’s expected to be the underdog.

Rungvisai has shown he can hang with some of the sport’s best, but he’ll need to be fighting at his best in order to pull off another upset on Saturday.

Posted on 04/23/2016

HBO World Championship Boxing Results: Golovkin Wipes Out Wade, Chocolatito Defeats Arroyo
By: William Holmes

The Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, California was the host site for tonight’s broadcast of HBO’s World Championship Boxing.

Two titles were on the line tonight as Gennady “GGG” Golovkin defended his middleweight titles against the young American Dominic Wade. Top pound for pound boxer Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez defended his flyweight title against former Olympian McWilliams Arroyo.

Tonight was the third time that Roman Gonzalez and Gennady Golovkin fought on the same card.

Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (44-0) opened up as a huge favorite over McWiliams Arroyo (16-2), but took his time in the opening round and both boxers spent the round feeling each other out while keeping a high guard.

Arroyo came out strong in the second round by landing multiple lead left hooks. Arroyo and Gonzalez exchanged several hard body shots, and at times Arroyo had Gonzalez moving backward. Gonzalez, hwoeve, slowed the momentum of Arroyo with a heavy body shot and closed the round strong.

Gonzalez’s dominance began to show in the third round as his body shots and uppercuts were landing with regularity and he was able to walk through some of the best punches of Arroyo. One left hook in particular rocked the jaw of Arroyo and Arroyo continued to take punishment to the body and head as the round came to an end.

The sole of Arroyo’s shoe came off in the fourth round, but Gonzalez showed no mercy and kept up the blistering pace. Arroyo fought back when he could, and was able to fire off some semi effective counters in the fifth and sixth rounds, but Gonzalez was still landing nearly double the punches of Arroyo.

Arroyo could do little but fight while moving backwards in the seventh round and his chin was tested often. A big left hook from Gonzalez hurt Arroyo in the opening minute of the eighth round and Gonzalez’s barrage of power shots continued into the ninth round.

By the tenth round the only chance of Arroyo pulling off the victory would have been by come from behind knockout, but Gonzalez never stepped off the gas pedal and battered Arroyo from corner to corner.
Arroyo showed incredible heart and gave Gonzalez a tougher fight than expected, but he was still outclassed and could not keep up with the pace of Gonzalez.

The judges scored the bout 119-109, 119-109, and 120-108 for Gonzalez.

The main event of the evening was between Gennady Golovkin (34-0) and Dominic Wade (18-0) in the middleweight division.

Wade was the taller fighter inside the ring, but Golovkin started the bout off strong and was landing hard shots to the body and head of Wade. Golovkin scored a knockdown in the first round with a right behind the ear of Wade. Wade was able to get up and survive the round, but Golovkin had landed three times the number of punches that Wade landed in the opening salvo.

Golovkin started off the second round aggressively and was looking for the kill. Golovkin appeared to let Wade land a five punch combination in the middle of the ring as if to say you can’t hurt me, and then followed it up with a right hand to the temple that sent Wade to the mat. Wade got up before the count of ten, but looked wobbly. Golovkin immediately jumped on Wade and took some shots in the process, but landed another right hook that sent Wade crashing to the mat by the corner.

Wade was unable to get back to his feet and remained on his knees at the count of ten.

Golovkin won by knockout, for the twenty second time in a row, at 2:37 of the second round.

Posted on 04/21/2016

HBO World Championship Boxing Preview: Golovkin vs. Wade, Chocolatito vs. Arroyo
By: William Holmes

On Saturday night two of boxing’s best pound for pound fighters in the world, Gennady Golovkin and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, will defend their titles at the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood California. These bouts will be televised live on HBO.

Both Golovkin and Wade are considered the heir apparent to the throne that Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao have abdicated since their retirement, and both are deserving of that title.

Big money matchups await both if they are successful on Saturday night. The following is a preview of both of these fights.

Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (44-0) vs. McWilliams Arroyo (16-2); WBC Flyweight Title

HBO has recently shown more attention to the lighter weight classes in boxing, and nobody has benefited more from that exposure than Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez.

Gonzalez has some of the best movement in boxing today and has the ability to attack from all angles and finish a fighter when the opportunity presents itself. He has stopped thirty eight of his opponents with a knockout ratio of 86%. That nmber is even more impressive when you consider he’s been a world champion since 2008.

His opponent, McWilliams Arroyo, is a Puerto Rican boxer that has stopped fourteen of his opponents. However, Arroyo has not been as active as Gonzalez and has not faced the level of opposition that Gonzalez has faced. Arroyo is thirty years old and two years older than Gonzalez. He’ll have a slight one inch height advantage.

Gonzalez has been very active as a champion and fought three times in 2015 and four times in 2014. Contrastingly, Arroyo has only fought once in 2015, twice in 2014, and once in 2013.

Both boxers have had successful amateur careers. Gonzalez had a record of 88-0 as an amateur and won the flyweight gold medal in the 2004 Central American Championships. Arroyo won the gold medal in the 2009 World Amateur Boxing Championships as a flyweight.

Gonzalez has defeated the likes of Brian Viloria, Edgar Sosa Medina, Akira Yaegashi, Rocky Fuentes, Omar Soto, and most impressively, Juan Francisco Estrada. Arroyo’s losses have come against Amnat Ruenroeng for the IBF Flyweight title and Takashi Okada. His notable victories include Victor Ruiz, Foilan Saludar, and Miguel Tamayo.

Even though Arroyo had an impressive amateur background, he will be overmatched in the ring when he faces Gonzalez. Arroyo does have the power to pull off an upset victory, but it appears highly unlikely to happen.

Gennady Golovkin (34-0) vs. Dominic Wade (18-0); WBA/IBF/Interim WBC Middleweight Title

The main event of the evening will be between Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Dominic Wade in a middleweight title fight.
Golovkin has been begging for a big money fight ever since HBO started televising his bouts, and it appears Canelo Alvarez could be next for him if he is successful on Saturday.

Golovkin is currently riding an amazing twenty one fight stoppage streak. His last non stoppage victory was way back in 2008. Golovkin possesses power that no current middleweight can match. He has stopped thirty one of his opponents, and has kept an active schedule.

Golovkin has fought three times in 2015 and 2014. His opponent, Dominic Wade, fought four times in 2014 but only one time in 2015.

Golovkin had a very successful amateur career and was a 2004 Silver Medalist in the Olympics and a 2003 Gold Medalist in the Amateur World Championships. Wade does not have the amateur success on the international stage that Golovkin posseses.

However, Wade does have some advantages in the ring. He is eight years younger than the thirty four year old Golovkin and will possess a four and a half inch reach advantage.

Wade, however, has never faced an opponent that is on Golovkin’s level. His biggest wins to date were over Nick Brinson, Sam Soliman, and Marcus Upshaw. His last fight was against Sam Soliman, and it was only a split decision victory.

Golovkin on the other hand has soundly beaten every opponent that dared step in the ring with him, including several top rated opponents. He has defeated the likes of David Lexmieux, Willie Monroe Jr. Martin Murray, Marco Antonio Rubio, Daniel Geale, Curtis Stevens, Matthew Macklin, Gabriel Rosado, and Kassim Ouma.

This is one of the rare instances in which an Al Haymon fighter will participate in an HBO televised event. However, this is a case where Wade is a heavy underdog with little chance of victory. Golovkin is getting older and will be past his physical prime soon, so observers will be paying attention to see if he’s showing signs of slowing down, but his impressive knockout streak will likely continue on Saturday.