Five Things We Learnt From the Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez vs. Juan Francisco Estrada Card

On June 29 at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, we saw a sensational performance from Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (20-0, 13 KOs) as he defeated Juan Francisco Estrada (44-4, 28 KOs) by seventh-round KO. The victory gave “Bam” the WBC and Ring Magazine super flyweight titles. The entire card streamed globally on DAZN, and here are five things we learnt from the full fight card.

Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez vs. Juan Francisco Estrada: Five Things We Learnt From the Entire Card

‘Bam’ Rodriguez Is a Pound-For-Pound Star After Juan Francisco Estrada Victory

What a performance this was from “Bam” Rodriguez – outboxing his opponent from the first bell, whose only significant success came with a flash knockdown in round six. The Rodriguez jab was sensational and helped set up all the good work that followed. He showcased his impressive power and accuracy, inflicting two knockdowns on El Gallo. The way “Bam” picked his shots and delivered the fight ending body shot showed why he’s undoubtedly a pound-for-pound star.

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Eddie Hearn spoke after the fight on the P4P status of Rodriguez: “When you mention [Terence] Crawford, when you mention [Oleksandr] Usyk, when you mention [Naoya] Inoue in the pound-for-pound list, you better say those three special letters — ‘Bam,‘ right? ‘Bam‘ Rodriguez is a pound-for-pound star, unquestionably.”

Sunny Edwards Is Still an Exceptional Boxer

In the chief support fight, the referee waved the fight off at the beginning of round nine on the recommendation of the ringside doctor. Sunny Edwards had sustained a nasty cut on his head due to an accidental clash of heads. The eight complete rounds that we saw, were enough to show us that Edwards is still an exceptional boxer. His heavy defeat to “Bam” Rodriguez could have affected him in many ways, but he reverted to what he does best, boxing off the back foot, pot-shotting and putting together eye-catching combinations.

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The lateral movement of Sunny and his fast hands ensured Adrien Curiel struggled to land any punch of significance. The crowd made it clear how they felt about Edwards and his backfoot fighting with regular booing. The scorecards read 90-82, 88-84 and 87-85, awarding the British fighter a unanimous technical decision victory. The scorecards were far too close, with BFW finding it difficult to give Curiel more than one round.

Judges’ Scorecards Continue to Baffle

The domination shown by Edwards was not reflected – on the scorecards, which was baffling. But even more baffling was the scorecards for Rodriguez-Estrada at the time of the stoppage. One judge had it 58-54 for “Bam” at the time of the stoppage, while the other two judges inexplicably had it 57-56 for Estrada and 56-56.

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These scorecards are staggering considering it was a dominating performance from Rodriguez, with “El Gallo” struggling to have any sustained success apart from the flash knockdown in the sixth round. There’s no argument for favouring anything as “Bam” controlled the tempo and was first to the punch and landed most punches of note. If the fight had gone the full distance, we could have seen a controversial outcome, but the right winner won. It’s alarming how often judges see fights vastly different from the rest of us. It feels like we are just waiting for the next controversial judging decision.

Fabian Rojo Has the Power

The promising young welterweight Fabian Rojo, fighting out of Phoenix, appeared on the before-the-bell part of the show as the unbeaten American faced Daniel Gonzalez.

It was a dominating performance, with the 22-year-old landing several heavy left hands almost at will against Gonzalez. It will be interesting to see how Rojo develops in the welterweight division but it’s clear his heavy-handed style will cause problems for many in the division.

Estrada Still Has a Part to Play

Despite the disappointing defeat to “Bam,” we saw enough from Estrada that despite his 18 months of inactivity, he showed he can have a huge part to play in the super flyweight division. Rodriguez was exceptional, and it’s difficult to see anyone else dominating El Gallo in that manner.

Estrada showed he can still pick his punches impressively and can stand and trade when needed. It looks like the rematch is next, and “El Gallo” mentioned he knows what he needs to do next time. Knowing and being able to do it against “Bam” are two different things. But its clear the Mexican legend still has a part to play in the super flyweight division.