By Rocky Morales at ringside
Photos: Sunio Yamada

Headlining “Superfly,” Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (44-4-1, 40KO) annihilated Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (46-2-1, 38KO) by fourth round knockout to retain his WBC super flyweight title on Saturday night at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Srisaket won by controversial decision in their first fight, this time he beat up Chocolatito, dropping him twice in round four to end it. A right hook left Gonzalez out cold.

Round one was a feeling out round but from the onset, it did not seem like the usual Chocolatito as he seemed hesitant and did not let his hands fly. The second round saw both fighters open up more but, again, it seemed like a different Chocolatito who even complained and seemed to look for help from the referee. Meanwhile, the champion kept pressing forward to further engage Chocolatito.

Third round action was back and forth but Rungvisai appeared visibly stronger.

Chocolatito was caught by a vicious right hook in the middle of the ring by the southpaw champion and dropped hard in round four. He managed to get up but Rungvisai went right after him and caught him with the exact same shot again to drop him even harder with no chance of getting up.

At 1:18 of the fourth round, Rungvisai successfully defends his belt while handing Chocolatito his second consecutive defeat.

Juan Francisco Estrada, who impressively defeated Carlos Cuadras, on the opening of the HBO telecast now becomes the mandatory challenger for Rungvisai but an all Asia showdown against Inoue also looks like a very attractive option for Rungvisai.