Women’s boxing is part of Gennady Golovkin’s Forum card

Women’s boxing sets the stage for the top two pound-for-pound fighters in the world Saturday night before unbeaten middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and unbeaten flyweight champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez lead the HBO fight card at the Forum.

Amid a push by World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman and others to add women’s fights to important cards and help better expose the sport, the undercard has Seniesa Estrada (5-0, 1 KO) of Los Angeles meeting Mexicali’s Selene Lopez (3-4-3) in a super-flyweight fight scheduled for six rounds.

And Tijuana’s Kenia Enriquez (15-1, 7 knockouts) meets San Diego’s Amaris Quintana (9-2-2) in a light-flyweight bout scheduled for eight rounds.

Estrada, initially trained by her father, Joe Estrada, began boxing as a 9-year-old and spent 12 years fighting as an amateur, finishing with a 97-4 record. She is now trained by veteran cornerman Dean Campos in Whittier.

She passed up the opportunity to try to qualify for the 2012 Olympics, opting instead to turn professional at 18.

Estrada also appeared on the undercard of Golovkin’s May 2015 victory over Willie Monroe, winning a unanimous decision over Carly Batey at the Forum.

“It’s great to see two other women on the card as well, and we can thank [Golovkin promoter] Tom Loeffler for that. … I feel grateful to be back on a major HBO undercard,” Estrada said at Thursday’s news conference.

“Most people who don’t know me or have never seen me fight, wonder why I’m here and wonder who I am, but nobody knows my 16-year journey that I’ve been on, and that I’ve had over 100 amateur fights. What I just want to continue to do is just prove why women deserve these opportunities and to prove why we belong here and just put on a great show.”

After winning the Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s bantamweight belt in November, Holly Holm bemoaned that women’s boxing doesn’t receive the attention it deserves.

Part of that is because major promoters won’t include women’s fights on their undercards, making it difficult for women to land fights.

For example, Bell-trained Maricela Cornejo, in only her third bout since 2013, last week fought for a WBC title in New Zealand, losing by split-decision to Kali Reis.

Sulaiman has urged promoters to help, and Golovkin has expressed an appreciation for bringing attention to quality fighters who deserve notice. Adding Gonzalez to last year’s Forum card helped propel “Chocolatito” to greater national prominence.

Golovkin defends his WBA and IBF middleweight belts against Dominic Wade, and Gonzalez defends his WBC flyweight title against McWilliams Arroyo.

“I come here to give a war, and I hope my opponent is ready for [one],” Lopez said.

Spoken like a fighter ...

Tickets for the card, priced from $30 to $400, are available at the Forum box office and Ticketmaster.com.

Twitter: @alexsolano3676