“It was a nice fight for the public, I did what I could, and that was the result.” Such was Roman Gonzalez’s response to a question about the outcome of his third fight with Juan Francisco Estrada. A question loaded and predictable and handled flawlessly. That is where the griping about scorecards ends—with Gonzalez. For the second time in three tries, Estrada hung a loss on him, winning a majority decision before a boisterous and boisterously supportive crowd at the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, this weekend. All three fights (as if they could be anything but) were fought at a level rarely achieved; thus, what separates the fighters in the eyes of the judges matters less than what unites them. Estrada–Gonzalez (or, if you prefer, Gonzalez–Estrada) is the defining trilogy of this era for its excellence, of course, but also its generosity: for even without it, both Estrada and Gonzalez have careers that make a mockery of many of their contemporaries.
Read What Separates and Unites: On Juan Francisco Estrada-Roman Gonzalez III on Hannibal Boxing.
In Between Rounds 