Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez Lights up Arizona With Stunning Performance

On Saturday, June 29, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (20-0, 13 KOs) showed his class as he won impressively by KO against the legendary Mexican Juan Francisco Estrada (44-4, 28 KOs), winning the WBC and Ring Magazine super flyweight titles. The fight happened at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, live on DAZN.

Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez Defeats Juan Francisco Estrada by KO

Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez vs. Juan Francisco Estrada Recap

The opening two rounds were impressive from “Bam” as he settled into his groove quickly, letting his jab go to good effect. He began strongly closing the distance effectively while punching accurately from angles.

What a round from “Bam” Rodriguez in the third as he hurt El Gallo with a right-angled punch to the temple, which stunned the Mexican fighter. Rodriguez was dominating at this point, pushing Estrada back, snapping his neck back, almost at will with that brilliant jab. The footwork of Rodriguez is exceptional at stopping Estrada from doing his normal work.

Read More: The Last Three Opponents of Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez

Round four saw El Gallo start to put his shots together and looked to be working his way into the fight when “Bam” landed a beautiful uppercut – which he followed up with a straight left which floored Estrada, who somehow survived the round. The domination continued in the next round, as Bam began to step on the gas again, stunning El Gallo with a heavy straight left and controlling the rest of the round.

Just as it seems the end is near, Estrada stuns “Bam” in round six with a lovely 1-2 combination, knocking him down. Rodriguez recovered well, working off his jab and ended the round on top. Round seven saw “Bam” start aggressively backing Estrada up, who showed his class, continuing to fire back. The jab from Rodriguez is a lethal weapon, and he continued to work great off that. As the round-edged to its close, Rodriguez pivoted away and landed a brutal body shot, which folded Estrada and led to the referee waving the fight off.

What a performance from “Bam” Rodriguez, that was truly mesmerising. We have a new small-weight king, and the question is, where does “Bam” go next?

Post Fight Quotes

In the post-fight interview, “Bam” expressed how tough the fight was and then explained how he felt about Estrada questioning his previous wins: “Yeah, I definitely had a chip on my shoulder, wanted to prove him wrong that I’m the real deal. I’ve been saying it all week that I was going to show him tonight and I did.”

Read More: The Last Three Opponents of Juan Francisco Estrada

In the post-fight interview, Bam made it clear what he wants next should Estrada not take the rematch: “I want the winner of Ioka-Martinez.”

Despite the devastating defeat, “El Gallo” made it clear what he wants next: “I know the mistake I made in there and I want the rematch.”

Undercard

In the chief support fight, Sunny Edwards (21-1, 4 KOs) vs. Adrien Curiel (24-6-1, 5 KOs) was called off by the ringside doctor at the start of round nine due to a cut sustained by the British flyweight fighter due to an accidental clash of heads, with the fight going to the judges. The scorecards read 90-82, 88-84 and 87-85, awarding the British fighter a unanimous technical decision victory. It was an impressive performance from Sunny and more conclusive than the scorecards suggest.

Yamileth Mercado (24-3, 5 KOs) retained her WBC women’s world super-bantamweight title by unanimous decision – defeating Ramla Ali (9-2, 2 KOs). The judges scorecards read 98-92, 98-93 and 97-93.

Arturo Cardenas (14-0-1, 8 KOs) defeated Danny Barrios (15-1, 5 KOs) by majority decision in an entertaining back-and-forth fight to retain his WBC Continental Americas super-bantamweight title. The scorecards read 97-93 and 96-94 for Cardenas, with the third card reading 95-95.

Before the Bell

Gabriel Muratalla (12-0, 6 KOs) impressed with his combinations and accuracy as he defeated the experienced Carlos Fontes (23-4-1, 19 KOs) in their bantamweight bout with the judge’s scorecards reading 79-73, 78-74 and 77-75.

Fabian Rojo (9-0, 7 KOs) made a statement as he stopped Daniel Gonzalez (5-2, 2 KOs) in the second round of their welterweight fight, showing his power in his left hand.

Leonardo Rubalcava (8-0, 3 KOs) impressed in his super lightweight bout against William Flenoy (3-4-1, 1 KOs), winning by unanimous decision with the judges scorecards reading 59-55×2 and 60-54.