JESSE ‘Bam’ Rodriguez delivered a seventh-round KO end over Juan Francisco Estrada in a combat that delivered in each means on the Footprint Middle, Phoenix, final night time. Rodriguez, 24, is now the WBC super-flyweight champion. Extra importantly, he has swept up his up to date rivals in a whirlwind run of victories.
After a fizzing begin to the competition, fought at a breakneck tempo, Estrada was shaken up in spherical three. ‘Bam’ capitalised additional on that early breakthrough, dropping the champion in spherical 4. Rodriguez’s left hand was dynamite.
The lead proper hand wasn’t too shabby both. Poking Estrada, 34, consistently along with his southpaw stick, the person referred to as ‘El Gallo’ was combating the hand velocity and accuracy.
Estrada wanted one thing large to show the tide and it got here in spherical six, with no consideration hand off the again of his personal jab caught Rodriguez napping and despatched him to the canvas for one knockdown apiece. It was the sort of turnaround required to push a battle into Struggle of the 12 months territory.
Bam down: Estrada places Rodriguez on the canvas. June 29, 2024; Phoenix, AZ; Juan Francisco Estrada and Jesse Rodriguez throughout their WBC World and Ring Journal Tremendous Flyweight title combat on the Footprint Middle in Phoenix, Arizona. Obligatory Credit score: Daniel Bartel/Boxing Information
Fast to regain the momentum, Rodriguez reintroduced his uppercut to get Estrada again underneath management and cautious of the bombs as soon as once more. Because the straight left and proper uppercut hovered within the background, Jesse known as on one other transfer to complete Estrada’s night.
A whipping physique shot on the shut of spherical seven took away the collective breath of the group, commentators and Estrada multi function flick of the wrist.
Estrada had not tasted defeat since Srisaket Sor Rungvisai outpointed him in 2018. Rodriguez served him up a dish of sizzled ribs because the Sonora native, who holds two wins over Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez, writhed alongside the canvas in ache.
Rodriguez lands the ending physique shot. June 29, 2024; Phoenix, AZ; Juan Francisco Estrada and Jesse Rodriguez throughout their WBC World and Ring Journal Tremendous Flyweight title combat on the Footprint Middle in Phoenix, Arizona. Obligatory Credit score: Daniel Bartel/Boxing Information.
Juan Francisco Estrada suffered his fourth profession loss in opposition to 44 wins (28 KOs). As talked about above, he’s misplaced earlier than, however this was essentially the most definitive defeat of all of them. New champ Rodriguez improves to 20-0 with 13 large wins by knockout. That tasty 65 per cent KO ratio stands out as lower-weight bangers are sometimes more durable to search out.
Estrada mentioned there was a rematch choice that he would pursue. Rodriguez would little question welcome the possibility of scoring a second win over the Mexican. “I assumed he was going to get again up,” grinned the brand new king, who was mentally making ready for extra warfare. Estrada couldn’t oblige and was counted out by referee Chris Flores.
As for Bam’s future strikes, his identify is more and more linked to Naoya Inoue. At present far aside in weight, given Rodriguez’s propensity to maneuver across the divisions, the extra he retains successful and appears spectacular doing so, the nearer to actuality that combat will turn out to be.
Sunny Edwards returned to successful methods on the undercard, scoring a ninth-round technical resolution win over Adrian Curiel. Yamileth Mercado beat Ramla Ali over 10 rounds for the WBC super-bantamweight title and Arturo Popoca Cardenas had an excessive amount of for Danny Barrios, successful over 10 rounds of a aggressive conflict.
