JESSE ‘Bam’ Rodriguez delivered a seventh-round KO finish over Juan Francisco Estrada in a fight that delivered in every way at the Footprint Center, Phoenix, last night. Rodriguez, 24, is now the WBC super-flyweight champion. More importantly, he has swept up his contemporary rivals in a whirlwind run of victories.
After a fizzing start to the contest, fought at a breakneck pace, Estrada was shaken up in round three. ‘Bam’ capitalised further on that early breakthrough, dropping the champion in round four. Rodriguez’s left hand was dynamite.
The lead right hand wasn’t too shabby either. Poking Estrada, 34, constantly with his southpaw stick, the man known as ‘El Gallo’ was struggling with the hand speed and accuracy.
Estrada needed something big to turn the tide and it came in round six, as a right hand off the back of his own jab caught Rodriguez napping and sent him to the canvas for one knockdown apiece. It was the kind of turnaround required to push a battle into Fight of the Year territory.
Bam down: Estrada puts Rodriguez on the canvas. June 29, 2024; Phoenix, AZ; Juan Francisco Estrada and Jesse Rodriguez during their WBC World and Ring Magazine Super Flyweight title fight at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Bartel/Boxing News
Quick to regain the momentum, Rodriguez reintroduced his uppercut to get Estrada back under control and wary of the bombs once again. As the straight left and right uppercut hovered in the background, Jesse called on another move to finish Estrada’s evening.
A whipping body shot at the close of round seven took away the collective breath of the crowd, commentators and Estrada all in one 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 as the Sonora native, who holds two wins over Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez, writhed along the canvas in pain.
Rodriguez lands the finishing body shot. June 29, 2024; Phoenix, AZ; Juan Francisco Estrada and Jesse Rodriguez during their WBC World and Ring Magazine Super Flyweight title fight at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Bartel/Boxing News.
Juan Francisco Estrada suffered his fourth career loss against 44 wins (28 KOs). As mentioned above, he’s lost before, but this was the most definitive defeat of them all. New champ Rodriguez improves to 20-0 with 13 big wins by knockout. That tasty 65 per cent KO ratio stands out as lower-weight bangers are often harder to find.
Estrada said there was a rematch option that he would pursue. Rodriguez would no doubt welcome the chance of scoring a second win over the Mexican. “I thought he was going to get back up,” grinned the new king, who was mentally preparing for more warfare. Estrada could not oblige and was counted out by referee Chris Flores.
As for Bam’s future moves, his name is increasingly linked to Naoya Inoue. Currently far apart in weight, given Rodriguez’s propensity to move around the divisions, the more he keeps winning and looks impressive doing so, the closer to reality that fight will become.
Sunny Edwards returned to winning ways on the undercard, scoring a ninth-round technical decision win over Adrian Curiel. Yamileth Mercado beat Ramla Ali over 10 rounds for the WBC super-bantamweight title and Arturo Popoca Cardenas had too much for Danny Barrios, winning over 10 rounds of a competitive clash.