HBO’s Peter Nelson on Roman Gonzalez-Naoya Inoue “The division is rich, and obviously there’s one burgeoning”

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Roman GonzalezWhile Gennady Golovkin is set to return this weekend, many of boxing’s eyes will be paying close attention to the undercard as well when flyweight champion Roman Gonzales makes his HBO debut. A lot of credit has to be given to Tom Loeffler, who always seems to not mind showcasing other promoter’s fighters on his card. He did so last time Golovkin fought in California when Nicholas Walters defeated Nonito Donaire. A lot of credit also has to be given to a man with a key eye in the lower division at HBO, Vice-President of Programming, Peter Nelson

“Roman is one of the brightest lights in boxing,” Nelson told RingTV.com. “Those who know the cognizant of boxing, hardcore fans, members of the press, have great awareness to the spectacular fights that he’s been in as well as the fight he’s in next week that augurs to be a tremendous all action fight with Edgar Sosa.”

Nelson recognized the wealth of the division and feels that it could be a place where HBO could invest more into.

“There is still plenty of richness in the flyweight division itself,” Nelson said. We’ve seen fighters at that weight reinvent themselves with greater regularity than fighters at heavier weights. We’ve seen that in iterations of careers, whether we see the great fights with [Juan] Estrada; Brian Viloria is constantly a threat. Fighters like this can always make good, quality fights with a fighter like Roman Gonzalez, who always comes to fight. He’s an all-action kind of fighter. So there’s a great profound, richness to the division. It also augurs well for what else is there for him if he decides to move up in the coming years.”

The obvious showdown is the Gonzalez-Estrada rematch but should Gonzalez make the move to 115, there is a mini super fight waiting for him in Naoye Inoue.

“The division is rich, and obviously there’s one burgeoning, rising star at 115 pounds [Naoya Inoue] and obviously there’s going to start to be an appetite to see those two comets collide,” he said, “though there is time to build and Chocolatito Gonzalez certainly needs to grow into be an 115-pounder before that would be approached.”