INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- Flyweight world champion Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez once again showed why he is widely hailed as the pound-for-pound king as he methodically beat down McWilliams Arroyo in a one-sided decision victory on Saturday night at The Forum.
Fighting for the third time in a row as the co-feature to middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin, who faced Dominic Wade in the main event, Gonzalez retained the 112-pound title for the fourth time and made it look rather easy against a quality contender in Arroyo.
Gonzalez won 120-108 on one scorecard and 119-109 on the other two. ESPN.com also had Gonzalez winning by shutout 120-108.
"I think it was an amazing effort against a tough opponent," K2 Promotions Tom Loeffler, Gonzalez's co-promoter said. "To throw that many punches and with Arroyo putting in such an effort, it was an amazing performance. Everyone brings their best game against Roman."
Gonzalez's punch output was tremendous as he landed 360 of 1,132 blows (32 percent), according to CompuBox punch statistics. Arroyo connected on 193 of 711 blows (27 percent).
"It was a very difficult fight," Gonzalez said. "Arroyo moves very well. He knows how to avoid the punches. I wanted to fight him, I wanted to roll him and catch him with counter punches, but it was difficult because he moved quite a bit."
Gonzalez, who came into the ring at 126 pounds, said he sees one more fight at 112 pounds before moving up to the 115-pound junior bantamweight division.
"My conditioning was fantastic," Gonzalez said. "Training in Costa Rica made all the difference in the world. I think maybe one more fight at 112 and then I move up to 115. I want to fight the best possible opponent."
It could be against unified flyweight titlist Juan Francisco Estrada (33-2, 24 KOs), 26, of Mexico, in a rematch of their 2012 classic, in which Gonzalez outpointed him in a highly competitive fight to retain his junior flyweight title.
Gonzalez, 28, of Nicaragua, was very fast with his combinations working to the head and body from the outset. Arroyo landed a few shots of his own, but Gonzalez continued to march forward. He clipped Arroyo (16-3, 14 KOs), who lost his second shot at a flyweight world title, with a left hand that rocked him in the third round and continued to fire away. By the end of the round, Arroyo looked haggard and was backing up.
Gonzalez (45-0, 38 KOs), who has also won world titles at strawweight and junior flyweight, was in a groove by the fourth round and punishing Arroyo, whose punch output became more sporadic. He also was hampered when the sole of his right shoe literally came off during the round and his corner taped it back into place during the rest period in an unusual scene.
While Gonzalez, who earned a career-high $300,000, continued to let his hands go, Arroyo, 30, a 2008 Puerto Rican Olympian and the twin brother of junior bantamweight world titleholder McJoe Arroyo, appeared to be slowing down and more defensive by the seventh round as he took heavy shots, especially body punches. But he never stopped trying. Many of the heavy hits Gonzalez landed were the kind that knocked out other opponents.
Gonzalez rocked Arroyo, whose purse was $75,000, with a right hand in the final seconds of the 10th round in what had become a very one-sided fight.
As Gonzalez continued to go after Arroyo in the 12th round, the crowd broke into chants of "Nicaragua! Nicaragua!" Gonzalez might not have gotten the knockout, but he had given those fans quite a show.
Martin knocks out Montoya in return
Lightweight prospect Ryan "Blue Chip" Martin, forced to sit idle for 11 months, returned with a bang, knocking out Rosbel Montoya in the fifth round.
Martin, a 23-year-old from Chattanooga, Tennessee, knocked off the rust from the long layoff after finally being freed from rapper/promoter Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson's SMS Promotions, which went bankrupt and forced Martin to sit on the sidelines while the bankruptcy wound its way through the legal process. Finally, they made a deal that allowed Martin to move on. He hooked up with K2 Promotions' Loeffler, who put him on the card and likely will sign him.
Martin (14-0, 9 KOs), who was 202-22 as an amateur fighting on the national level, looked sharp in his return, in which he dropped Montoya (16-8-1, 13 KOs), of Mexico, to all fours with a crunching right hand in the final few seconds of the second round. He floored Montoya again with a heavy left hook to the body midway through the fourth round.
In the fifth round, he continued to pound on Montoya, and referee Raul Caiz Jr. finally stopped the fight at 1 minute, 51 seconds with Montoya along the ropes and not throwing punches back.
Paramount, California, junior lightweight Pedro Duran (14-0, 11 KOs), a 22-year-old prospect, hammered Mexico's Pedro Lopez (6-3-1, 2 KOs) in a one-sided destruction. Duran dropped him with twice, with a hard left hand midway through the first round and with a right hand seconds before the end of the second round. He continued to batter him until Lopez's corner stopped the fight after the fourth round.
Kenia Enriquez (16-1, 7 KOs), of Mexico, knocked out Amaris Quintana (9-3-2, 1 KO), of San Diego, 16 seconds into the fifth round of their women's junior lightweight bout. Enriquez overpowered Quintana, dropping her in the first and fifth rounds before referee Caiz Jr. waved off the fight.
East Los Angeles flyweight Seniesa Estrada (6-0, 1 KOs) rolled to a shutout decision against Mexico's Selene Lopez (3-5-3, 1 KO) in a spirited women's bout. Lopez fought her tooth and nail but was outclassed by Estrada, who won 60-54 on all three scorecards.