By Sean Jones: WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez will be defending his title against McWilliams Arroyo in a rematch on December 3rd in the chief support bout on the Juan Francisco Estrada vs. Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez III card on DAZN at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
The 27-year-old Martinez (18-2, 14 KOs) and Arroyo (21-4, 16 KOs) fought to a third round no contest last November. Arroyo was injured from a clash of heads, resulting in the fight needing to be stopped.
Some boxing fans felt that the 36-year-old McWilliams was just looking for a way out of the fight, as Martinez had taken control over the contest and dropped him in the second. The way the fight was going, Rey Martinez was overpowering Arroyo and looked like he was on the verge of scoring a knockout.
Martinez is coming off a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Chocolatito Gonzalez last March. Going into that fight, some fans felt that Martinez would have too much youth for the 35-year-old Nicaraguan Chocolatito, but boy were they wrong.
Chocolatito took Rey Martinez to school and totally dominated, beating him as badly as he did Juan Francisco Estrada in his robbery loss last year in Dallas. Martinez’s one-sided loss to Chocolatito took a little of the shine out of his rematch with Arroyo. While the fight is still interesting, it’s not as compelling as it would have been if not for Martinez’s loss to Chocolatito.
“What a night this is going to be,” said promoter Eddie Hearn. “The trilogy battle between Estrada and Chocolatito is guaranteed to be a thriller, and Martinez and Arroyo have given us a taste of what they provide when they tangle.”
Hopefully, there’s quality judging that works the Chocolatito vs. Estrada III trilogy because their fight last year left a lot of boxing fans angry. Chocolatito totally dominated Estrada, beating him worse than in their first fight in 2012.
In Estrada’s last fight against Argi Cortes on September 3rd, he looked shot to bits, winning a 12 round decision.
“Estrada and Chocolatito will go down as one of the great rivalries in the sport, and on December 3, one of these two modern greats will edge ahead of the other, and that promises to make this the most thrilling of the three clashes – it’s an early Christmas present for fight fans that you do not want to miss,” said Hearn.
