Roman Gonzalez Is Melted Chocolate

“I want to make a soft fight, be a champion of the world and then unify titles. I'm not in a hurry to be a champion, but I would take the fight with Kal Yafai later on.”

–Roman Gonzalez, still feeling KTFO by WBC super flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai on Wednesday

Roman Gonzalez is finished.

Like a melted Hershey’s bar in your pocket that’s never the same again after being frozen. You kinda remember what it was and toss it. Maybe you mourn a little before giving way to Snickers on your way to remote control. He’s now the box of chocolate Forrest Gump opened up and never expected to get in life. It’s gone. There’s nothing there.

Boxing is cruel.

A sick 88-0 an amateur typhoon morphed into a 46-0 professional monsoon. But “Chocolatito” (46-2, 38KO’s) was so swept away too late. He’s so 2017. Sure, that was just 2 weeks ago. But last January he was the best fighter in the world, because…it seemed like the right thing to call him. If Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao were all-world seniors on the varsity team in H.S., it doesn’t matter that you might be better than them—if you’re a sophomore. The guy who beat the shit out of a tough, Freddie Roach-trained Brian Viloria on the Gennady Golovkin v David Lemieux undercard at Madison Square Garden in October 2015, would get run out of the Wild Card Gym today by Viloria.

Winning is mojo.

When you lose it (like say, Pacquiao after being KTFO by Juan Manuel Marquez), you take time to reflect on whether you misplaced it, or actually lost it. Special fighters rediscover it. I would’ve found Roberto Duran in a greasy diner with a flask in my jacket if I was Choco (I mean, Thomas Hearns definitely Srisaket Sor Rungvisai’d his ass). A guy like Duran– who simply went too far as the best lightweight ever, would look into Roman’s eyes and spot a lie as big as a rafter. Pacquiao, who was beating up Marquez and going for the knockout in saga IV, pressed for a chapter V with the gusto of Vasyl Lomachenko chasing a rematch with Orlando Salido.

Roman Gonzalez would immediately leave the diner if Srisaket Sor Rungvisai walked in.

I thought Choco won the March 18, 2017 encounter with SsR.

It wasn’t a robbery per se, but he won. The only problem is, he also lost all of his prime that night, as his camp for the rematch proved. Now, he’s been beaten into a has been devoid of confidence who never will be again.

Not only was he not going to be ready for Superfly 2 on HBO against Kal Yafai in February, but he’ll still look like a tiger without any black stripes in April.

Vanilla ain’t chocolate.