IT ended the way virtually everyone thought it would, with referee Luis Pabon standing between
Juan Francisco Estrada and
Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, while MC Michael Buffer was getting ready to announce a decision that was so close it had us filled with anxiety as to the fate that awaited the combatants. What we could be certain of was that no matter who had their hand raised the outcome would cause debate.
It was a sombre night at the American Airlines Center with the news having spread earlier in the evening of the death of Marvin Hagler. As tributes poured in for the former world middleweight champion, the biggest one of all may have been delivered by Estrada and Gonzalez, who engaged in the type of head-to-head combat that the Marvelous one was well known for.