Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn sat down with iFL TV today for nearly two hours of interviewing, discussing a wide variety of plans for the many fighters in his stable. Michael Benson has a nice summary of the details, but one concrete piece of information stood out: Hearn is looking to match WBA super flyweight champion Kal Yafai against former pound-for-pound king Roman Gonzalez, ideally on the February 29th Fresno card headlined by Mikey Garcia vs. Jessie Vargas.
He discusses it around the 20:00 mark.
Yafai (26-0, 15 KO) mentioned wanting to face Gonzalez (48-2, 40 KO) way back in March of 2017, and “Chocolatito” claimed to have received an offer to face the Brit late last year before the Nicaraguan’s knockout of Pedro Guevara. Yafai has been linked to a unification bout with Juan Francisco Estrada for the past several months, but persistent hand issues led to multiple delays.
There are far less appealing ways Yafai could spend the wait than fighting Gonzalez. He needs a breakout win and Gonzalez needs to prove he’s still elite after that destructive knockout loss to Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. Andrew Moloney is technically Yafai’s mandatory, but considering the former just got that status last month with his stoppage of Elton Dharry, I don’t think the WBA will terribly mind Yafai fighting in February.