Carlos Cuadras says unbeaten Chocolatito Gonzalez is ‘scared’ to fight him

It takes some brass to call the unbeaten fighter considered by some as the top pound-for-pound boxer in the world “scared,” but that’s part of Carlos Cuadras’ charm.

Should favored Cuadras defeat his Mexico City neighbor David Carmona on March 18 in a bout on the Gennady Golovkin-Daniel Jacobs undercard at Madison Square Garden, the World Boxing Council on Thursday ruled that Cuadras would become the mandatory challenger for a possible rematch with Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez.

Nicaragua’s Gonzalez (46-0, 38 knockouts) opted last month to bypass an immediate rematch against Cuadras (35-1-1, 27 KOs) following a closely contested unanimous-decision victory at the Forum in Inglewood in September.

Fight promoter Tom Loeffler said Gonzalez had the option to either pursue a rematch of the Cuadras bout that was a fight-of-the-year contender or take on his current WBC super-flyweight mandatory challenger, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (41-4-1, 38 KOs), also on March 18.

“I hope both Gonzalez and I win so we can have the rematch … I’ll be ready. I just hope Gonzalez doesn’t back out … he’s scared,” Cuadras said, cracking a grin.

The effusive Cuadras told The Times in December at the WBC convention in Florida that he expected the rematch with Gonzalez to get done following some last-minute financial haggling. Then, things changed.

“He figures he can get another payday out of the belt first [by fighting Rungvisai] and then he’ll have to fight me,” Cuadras said at a news conference at the Palm restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. “I believe Gonzalez realizes he can’t win the rematch. I’ll knock him out.”

Cuadras was surging as the fight reached its conclusion and left Gonzalez more marked up than he’s ever been.

“Gonzalez understands the next time we meet, it’ll be Round 13, and I’ll pick up where I left off,” Cuadras said.

Placing both fights on the HBO pay-per-view card can help further fuel interest in the rematch. Cuadras says he’s taking a “step-by-step” approach to avoid overlooking Carmona.

Cuadras said he and Carmona weren’t really familiar enough with each other to have formed a rivalry. “I’ve only seen him fight a few times and seen him at some events,” Cuadras said, adding, “but we can make it a rivalry.”

Nothing can surpass the interest in Gonzalez, however, and while Cuadras initially said “I got robbed” following the reading of the scores, his Maywood-based trainer, Rudy Hernandez, said they quickly “moved on,” thinking, “we’ll make it right next time.

“I told [Cuadras], ‘The next time you fight him, you have to knock him out,’” Hernandez added. “I don’t care if you win 11 out of 12 rounds … you have to knock him out. I believe he has everything to make it happen. He’s confident enough to know he’s right there with [Gonzalez].”

Cuadras said he’s hopeful the WBC mandatory designation will ensure a match with Gonzalez should both win their March fights.

“Convince him,” Cuadras urged promoter Loeffler.

“You have to ask Chocolatito about [the rematch with Cuadras following immediately] … it’s not like he chose an easier fight than Cuadras from what I’m hearing about [Rungvisai] … but I believe he wanted to make the rematch bigger,” Loeffler said.

“With Chocolatito winning four titles in four divisions, being undefeated at 46-0, it’s hard to question his character and courage.”

Cuadras, seated next to Loeffler, just smiled.