Title unification bouts aren’t supposed to be as easy as Saturday’s was for Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez.
Facing a fellow undefeated super flyweight titleholder in Fernando Martinez, Rodriguez made a champ look like an overmatched challenger on his way to a 10th-round knockout win in Saudi Arabia. Already the WBC and WBO champ at 115 pounds, Rodriguez claimed Martinez’s WBA title.
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Every round was a rinse-repeat until the end. Rodriguez couldn’t keep up with the footwork of a boxer ranked fifth on Uncrowned’s pound-for-pound rankings, all the way up to the punch that ended it. As Martinez laid out on the mat, he seemed very aware that getting up would simply keep him on track for a shoutout on the scorecards.
Rodriguez landed more punches (276-131 in total punches landed, via Compubox), harder punches (232 of his landed blows were power punches) and left his opponent more damaged, with Martinez’s nose clearly broken by the middle rounds. None of this was complicated.
Asked after the fight when he knew he had the win, Rodriguez was blunt:
“Honestly, after round one.”
Rodriguez went on to praise Martinez as an opponent, exchanging a handshake with him in the middle of the comment:
“He’s a tough opponent. He’s a former world champion himself, so that says a lot. Nothing but respect for Martinez. He was a lot tougher than I expected even though I gave him my hardest shot.”
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Initially the WBC champ after taking down Juan Francisco Estrada, Rodriguez captured the WBO title with a similarly dominant showing against Phumelela Cafu in July.
Ahead of the bout, Rodriguez said he was interested in only one more fight at super flyweight if he won Saturday, against IBF titleholder Willibaldo GarcÃa to become the division’s undisputed champion. After that, he plans to move up to bantamweight and face the likes of Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani.
Check out Uncrowned’s full coverage of Saturday’s David Benavidez vs. Anthony Yarde pay-per-view in Riyadh, including live results, play-by-play and highlights of the entire main card.