Roman Gonzalez could face Kal Yafai on Mikey Garcia-Jessie Vargas card
Román Gonzalez’s plans for 2020 already appear to be coming together, just one week after scoring a second-round stoppage of Diomel Diocos in his first bout in more than a year in Japan.
Promoter Eddie Hearn told iTV Monday that he is trying to put together a fight between Gonzalez and Kal Yafai in a junior bantamweight bout on a DAZN card featuring Mikey Garcia vs. Jessie Vargas on Feb. 29 in Frisco, Texas.
Hearn is looking at Gonzalez as a leading possibility for Yafai in the wake of news that Juan Francisco Estrada suffered a hand injury in training. Estrada, who holds a 115-pound belt, is scheduled for surgery. He is expected to be out until at last May.
“Now, this is the fight that I’m trying to make for Feb. 29 on the Mikey Garcia (card),’’ Hearn said.
Hearn still hopes for an eventual Yafai fight against Estrada. If Hearn is able to negotiate a deal with Gonzalez’s promoter,
of Teiken, Yafai would first have to beat Gonzalez, a former pound-for-pound champion nicknamed Chocolatito.
“If he can beat Chocolatito, then he goes into the Estrada fight in great shape in terms of his earning potential and star power,’’ Hearn said.
Upon his return to Nicaragua last week, Gonzalez (47-2, 39 KOs), the lightest fighter to ever be voted No. 1 in the pound-for-pound debate, named Yafai as somebody he would like to fight next. He also mentioned Kazuto Ioka and Estrada.
Yafai (26-0, 15 KOs), of the U.K., has made five title defenses of a 115-pound belt he won when he beat Luis Concepcion on Dec. 10, 2016.