Kal Yafai to move up in weight after loss to Roman Gonzalez

Kal Yafai, who lost the WBA junior bantamweight title in a rather one-sided defeat to Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez on Feb. 29, says he’s planning to move up in weight, which is certainly no surprise.

He also offered his congratulations to Gonzalez in a post on social media.

“I learned a lot sharing the ring with ‘Chocolatito,’ who is a great fighter, and the better man won on the night,” Yafai wrote. “I was a fan before I fought him and will continue to be, so congratulations to him.

“People ask me what went wrong, but there’s no point talking about it publicly, as it always sounds like an excuse and at the end of the day it doesn’t change anything, the result is what matters. I know what I did and went wrong, and I have to redeem myself, which I will do.”

The 30-year-old Yafai (26-1, 15 KO) says he’s looking forward to becoming a two-weight world champion. He’ll likely be moving to bantamweight, though it wouldn’t be a complete shock to see him skip up to junior featherweight, either, similar to what we saw Lee Selby do last year in skipping junior lightweight to jump from featherweight to lightweight after a world title defeat.