Rodriguez dominates, stops Sor Rungvisai to retain title in superb performance
Akhmadaliev and McCaskill keep their belts on undercard
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In an overwhelmingly dominant performance, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez looked every bit the star he and many others believe he can be as he retained the WBC junior bantamweight title in his first defense.
Rodriguez dropped, dismantled and beat up former two-time champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in stunningly easy fashion en route to a one-sided eighth-round knockout in the main event of the Matchroom Boxing card on DAZN on Saturday night at Tech Port Arena in San Antonio, Rodriguez’s hometown.
“My skills proved a point tonight,” Rodriguez said. “I told everybody I was trying to be a special fighter and I proved that tonight. We know what I’m capable of and that’s why we took this fight in the first place. We knew what I brought to the table and tonight I showed that.”
Rodriguez, boxing’s youngest active world titleholder at age 22, never allowed the hard-punching Sor Rungvisai to get into the fight. He controlled the bout from the opening bell as he outboxed and outpunched the slower Sor Rungvisai. He pelted him with clean shots from both hands, landed many powerful jabs and steadily broke the former pound-for-pound entrant down to continue what has been a whirlwind few months.
“San Antonio, you got a superstar on your hands,” Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said. “These kinds of fighters only come along once in a generation. We live in a world of hype but it’s hard not to get too excited. This is the youngest world champion in boxing and already might be a pound-for-pound great. From 108 pounds to 115 pounds, honestly, I don’t think I would back any fighter to beat him. I’m talking about some of the greats, Chocolatito (Roman Gonzalez and Juan Francisco) Estrada. Would you put those guys as a favorite against ‘Bam’ Rodriguez?”
On Feb. 5, in Phoenix, Rodriguez dropped and handily outpointed former titleholder Carlos Cuadras to win the vacant WBC 115-pound title to become boxing’s youngest titlist as well as the first world titleholder born in the 2000s.
Cuadras had been scheduled to face Sor Rungvisai, but when he came down with Covid-19 and dropped out of the fight, Rodriguez, who was due to fight in a flyweight bout on the undercard, accepted an offer to move up in weight and face Cuadras for the belt on six days’ notice.
For his first defense he faced the now-healthy Sor Rungvisai, a borderline Hall of Famer with two victories over the legendary Gonzalez — and a 2014 title loss to Cuadras — with whom he formed the four horseman of the division for the past several years along with Estrada.
But Sor Rungvisai (50-6-1, 43 KOs), 35, a southpaw from Thailand, has slowed down in recent years and was coming off a 15-month layoff. Still, his power figured to be an asset but he could never land anything meaningful against Rodriguez, who was determined not to stand in front of him and make it a slugfest.
“I grew up watching these guys, so to be in the ring with them is just a privilege. But to beat them the way I’ve been beating them, it means everything to me and my team and we couldn’t be more than happy,” Rodriguez said.
While Sor Rungvisai plowed forward looking to land heavy shots, Rodriguez snapped off hard jabs and combinations and used his considerable speed advantage to avoid the big punches that Sor Rungvisai threw mostly only one at a time.
Rodriguez (16-0, 11 KOs) landed a right hand an uppercut in the third round, which is when he said he felt like he had taken control.
“After like the third round I felt like his power wasn’t the same,” Rodriguez said. “Maybe felt like I broke him down a bit, but like I said, after the third round I didn’t feel like his power was the same. He was still strong but not like the first two rounds. We came out here and put on a show.”
Rodriguez continued with his two-handed attack and it was clear Sor Rungvisai was beginning to wilt. Rodriguez had a big sixth round, hurt him with a body shot and an uppercut in the seventh round and then nailed him with a left hand to the temple that rocked Sor Rungvisai and forced him to touch both of his gloves to the mat for a knockdown later in the seventh.
“I started using my angles more. (Trainer) Robert (Garcia) kept reminding me to use my angles and that’s what I did. I stepped to my right and threw my left shot and he went down,” Rodriguez said.
In the eighth round, Rodriguez pounded Sor Rungvisai with a relentless attack. He eventually sent him into the ropes and as he continued to unload unanswered punches, referee Mark Calo-oy intervened at 1 minute, 50 seconds.
According to CompuBox statistics, Rodriguez landed 233 of 431 punches (54 percent) — an extremely high percentage — and Sor Rungvisai landed only 84 of 440 (20 percent). Rodriguez outlanded him in every round.
Rodriguez is in a great position now. He has a world title at junior bantamweight but reiterated that he would go down to flyweight or junior flyweight for the right fight.
“I’m down to do whatever Robert says,” Rodriguez said. “Any champion at 112. Come and get it. I’m here. I’m here to stay. I’m a special fighter not an average fighter.”
Hearn believes more big fights and performances are ahead for Rodriguez and it is hard to think otherwise.
“He can go down to 108, he can go to 112, but literally there’s not one fighter I would put to Robert Garcia or Jesse Rodriguez that they wouldn’t accept a challenge against,” Hearn said. “Like this young man says, he’s here to be a great. He’s here for legacy, he’s here to be remembered, and San Antonio should be very proud of Jesse Rodriguez.
“There’s a long career ahead. Very young guy, but all the ability to be a pound-for-pound great.”
Akhmadaliev stops Rios in 12th
In the co-feature, Murodjon Akhmadaliev retained his unified IBF/WBA junior featherweight titles for the third time, overcoming a left hand injury he said he suffered in the second round to knock out mandatory challenger Ronny Rios in the 12th round of a one-sided fight.
Despite the injury, Akhmadaliev was in control for virtually the entire way against Rios, who dropped to 0-2 in world title bouts, having lost a unanimous decision to then-WBA titlist Rey Vargas in 2017.
Although he was comfortably ahead, Akhmadaliev (11-0, 8 KOs), 27, a southpaw from Uzbekistan, stepped up the pace in the final round and began to unleash his dormant left hand, finally dropping Rios with an onslaught of shots, including four left hands.
Rios (33-4, 16 KOs), 32, of Santa Ana, California, was up at the count of seven but when Akhmadaliev landed a few more punches — and Rios was not throwing anything back — referee Rafael Ramos waved it off at 2 minutes, 6 seconds.
“Unfortunately, in the second round I hurt my hand when I buckled him, so for the rest of the fight I was using my front hand and it was very successful, but I couldn’t use the left hand because I was worried about the future rounds,” Akhmadaliev said through an interpreter. “But in the 12th round (my corner) told me they wanted me to stop him, so I just let it go because I know there is no 13th round.
“My corner told me, ‘Go ahead, you can finish him. Just forget about the pain and don’t worry about the hand, deal with it later.’ So, I just let it go and I risked a little bit because I know Ronny is a warrior.”
With his belts secured and WBC/WBO titlist Stephen Fulton (21-0, 8 KOs), 27, of Philadelphia, having retained his belts on June 4 by near-shutout of former unified titlist Daniel Roman — the man Akhmadaliev dethroned in January 2020 — the biggest fight in the 122-pound division is a Futon-Akhmadaliev showdown for the undisputed crown.
“I’m ready for anyone, for any fight,” Akhmadaliev said. “It doesn’t matter to me. Whatever the big boss Eddie Hearn wants we’ll go that way.”
Fulton is up for it, tweeting after the fight, “Man, let’s make the fight happen,” to which Hearn replied, “100% — no obstacles. Let’s make it happen.”
Also on the undercard:
Undisputed women’s welterweight champion Jessica McCaskill (12-2, 4 KOs), 37, of Chicago, easily retained her belts for the fourth time with a one-sided third-round stoppage of Alma Ibarra (10-2, 5 KOs), 34, of Mexico, who took a beating until her corner stopped it with her on the stool after the third round.
In the opening bout on the main card, featherweight Raymond Ford (12-0-1, 6 KOs), 23, a southpaw from Camden, New Jersey, cruised to a one-sided decision over Richard Medina (13-1, 7 KOs), 21, of San Antonio, to retain his regional belt. Ford won 100-90, 100-90 and 99-91 and looked much better than he did when he was lucky to get out of Phoenix with a split decision win over Edward Vazquez on Feb. 5.
Other weekend results
South Africa’s Hekkie “The Hexecutioner” Budler (35-4, 10 KOs), 34, a former strawweight and unified junior flyweight world titleholder, outpointed former junior flyweight titlist Elwin Soto (19-4, 13 KOs), 25, in a WBC 108-pound title eliminator on Saturday night in Soto’s hometown of Mexicali, Mexico.
Budler, the underdog, dropped Soto in the 12th round to secure the 114-113 victory on all three scorecards as Soto lost his second decision in a row. In October, Jonathan Gonzalez took Soto’s WBO title by split decision.
On Friday night, at Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee, Florida, Gonzalez (26-3-1, 14 KOs), 31, of Puerto Rico, retained the WBO junior flyweight title by unanimous decision over fellow southpaw Mark Anthony Barriga (11-2, 2 KOs), 29, a former strawweight title challenger from the Philippines. Gonzalez, who was making his first defense, won 117-111, 117-111 and 115-113.
“This guy has good footwork. It was a little hard to get to him,” Gonzalez said. “I had faith in my conditioning because I have the best team in the world. After the eighth round, my corner told me to get my mind together. I knew I had to go to war in there. I know I have to go to the drawing board and work on some things that we didn’t do right.”
Photos: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing
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Praying that they make Bam vs Chocolatito in San Diego🙏 this fight freak will be there if SO! The Master vs The Prodigy🥊
Really other level stuff from Bam R yesterday. It was a total domination for sure. I give Sor Rungvisai hi marks for standing in. Rodriguez’ jab was so on point but SR was just attempting to walk through it as, in my opinion, he had no other choice. How often is it that a fighter won’t get punches off out of fear of eating what’s coming back? That was not SR, he was fearless and concentrated on trying to land heavy blows to turn the tide. I think it was his best and only hope. Not his night though, plus Father Time is a relentless bastard.