Fighter of the Week (12/11-12/17): Bam Rodriguez
On a weekend that saw two KO of the Year candidates a massive upset of an outstanding prospect, there was an obvious choice for Fighter of the Week. "Wouldn't boxing be great if the best always fought the best?" promoter Eddie Hearn asked. That's exactly what we got Saturday night in the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. 23-year-old Bam Rodriguez, of San Antonio, Texas, gave perhaps the best performance of his impressive career to move to 19-0 (12), unified the WBO and IBF Flyweight titles by destroying Sunny Edwards of London, England, established himself as a Pound-for-Pounder and takes home our Fighter of the Week award.
After a competitive couple of opening rounds that saw Bam investing to the body and Edwards moving and using his jab. The rounds were reasonably close and competitive. However, it was Rodriguez landing the more meaningful shots. A vintage Bam right hook scored in the second round with about 45 seconds to go caught the attention of the Brit. Edwards bounced back with a strong third, but that was really the last moment of success he had. The fourth round saw Rodriguez pick up the pace. The now unified champ said in the press conference that he had "figured it out and saw Edwards slowing down" at this point. Edwards's eye was swelling badly, so he decided to switch to southpaw. It did nothing to confuse or frustrate the Alamo City native. Rodriguez out-jabbed the Brit and scored with powerful hooks that drove him backward into the ropes, and Rodriguez would do damage to the body of Edwards while he was in the ropes. The Texan stayed downstairs as Edwards began to slow down and became more stationary as the rounds went on. Bam began teeing off on his opponent, and it became abundantly clear that Rodriguez was going to get his man out of there. It was just a matter of when. The when came in the ninth round as Rodriguez had put together a sustained rally. The Alamo City native had his opponent in a world of trouble and then ended it abruptly with an overhand left from the rafters that the sharp-shooting Texan loaded up on and scored with perfectly. The shot lifted Edwards up off his feet and put him on the canvas as the round expired. Edwards somehow got up and made it to his corner, but his team decided that was sufficient and waved off the bout, giving Rodriguez the TKO victory and making him a unified champion.
The path is wide open for the Texan, and he is going to have a plethora of good options as he has already, at just 23 years old, established himself as the most marketable little man in the US since Michael Cabarjal. For the second week in a row, our Fighter of the Week is an all-world multi-division champion who insists on moving up in weight. Just like Devin Haney last week, Rodriguez insists on jumping up in weight. He is moving to 115 despite appearing to be the smaller man in the ring Saturday night. He has his mind made up and is WBC Super Flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada. Ironically, Estrada ducked Rodriguez's Older brother Joshua Franco when each held a version of the WBA 115-pound title. Rodriguez will look to take care of Estrada the way he finished off Sor Rungvisai in 2022.
