Jesse Just Too Bam Good
A star was officially born in Arizona on Saturday night as Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez became the unified flyweight champion of the world with what can only be described as a quite breathtaking performance against the commendably tough Sunny Edwards.
In what looked on paper to be a chess match, it certainly turned out to be just that, however, it was arguably the most violent and articulate chess match you are ever likely to see inside of a boxing ring.
The fight started how it would ultimately pan out for a majority of the fight. Straight to the centre of the ring, Bam looked to stamp his authority on the contest straight away. Sunny, like he usually does, decided to circle just out of range but it was the American’s reach advantage and ramrod jab that seemed to be the difference in the first round.
It was then in the second round when the reigning WBO champ really got to work. After landing a sharp right hand which Edwards walked into, a mouse appeared on the left eyelid of the Englishman.
After some very good work in the corner in-between rounds, the swelling did appear to die down a bit and in rounds three and four, Edwards worked his way back into the fight by planting his feet inside of Bam’s seven-inch reach advantage and having some success of his own to head and body, most notably with his looping left hand.
From there on though, it turned into the Bam show.
Edwards was holding his own but the fight was getting fought at Rodriguez’s pace and Sunny was struggling to put a dent in his American rival.
By the end of round seven, Edwards was cut above the right eye and the mouse under his left eye appeared to only be getting worse. The ref waved the doctor over and he gave Sunny the all-clear to continue but the writing was firmly on the wall by then.
Edwards seemed to be getting a little bit of a second wind in round nine and Bam’s pace did slightly start to slow but as the round was coming to a close, Rodriguez delivered what would be the final straw.
As Bam threw a half-hearted southpaw jab to the body, Edwards bit and out of nowhere, Rodriguez landed a peach of left hand which sent Sunny crashing to the canvas.
To his credit, Edwards got up and his legs were somehow still underneath him. The round came to a close just seconds later and almost immediately, Sunny’s trainer and mentor Grant Smith had called it a day for the star of his stable.
It was an emphatic ending to a gruesome fight with the American lay flat on the canvas as the reality of what he had just achieved sunk in.
This wasn’t an ordinary performance, this was the sort of performance where even if you were the most loyal of Sunny Edwards fans, you could have nothing but pure admiration for what you had just witnessed.
The tenaciousness, the ability, the ring IQ and the composure, it really was 27 minutes of elite-level boxing from Jesse Rodriguez.
And the most frightening thing about it? He is 23-years-old. The future is bright, really bright and this young man may well be on his way to becoming one of the greatest of all time, never mind this generation.
As for Sunny, it’s his first loss as a pro and it’ll most certainly be a tough one to take but what he did show is that he and Rodriguez are just, at the moment, on a different level to everyone else in that division.
Bam hinted at a permanent move up to super-fly so if that was the case, the two belts would become vacant and Edwards would be in pole position for a crack at them both once again. Or maybe, WBC champ Julio Cesar Martinez might actually fancy his chances against him after seemingly turning his nose up at the fight for so many years.
Either way, these are two young fighters who put it all on the line on the biggest stage possible and restored a lot of people's faith in a sport that has pushed plenty of people away in recent years.
Earlier on in the night and just the 5,000 miles northeast of Arizona in Sunderland, Josh Kelly picked up his second stoppage win in over five years against Colombian Placido Ramirez.
Easy on the eye as usual, Kelly detonated a peach of an uppercut onto the chin or Ramirez which lifted him a good half-a-foot off the floor and sent him crashing to the canvas.
The ref gave him a count but he just couldn’t beat it with the victory for Kelly now throwing him into the mix for huge domestic fights with the likes of Conor Benn or Chris Eubank Jr or even a world title shot against Tim Tszyu.
Back to the States, WBA world super-middleweight champ David Morrell Jr, as predicted, made light work of the experienced Sena Agbeko in Showtime Boxing’s final-ever show.
As destructive as ever, the Cuban backed Agbeko into a corner with seconds of round two left and after 10 thudding shots landed, referee Mark Nelson decided he’d seen enough and stepped in and waved the fight off.
A poignant ending to Showtime’s 37 years in boxing by a fighter who in 37 years we could be looking back on as one of the best to ever lace up a pair of gloves.
