By: Sean Crose
The WBC junior bantamweight title was on the line Saturday evening in Phoenix as the 44-3 defending champion Juan Francisco Estrada slipped between the ropes to face the 19-0 undefeated upstart Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez. The extremely anticipated combat was scheduled for 12 championship rounds. The crowd was electrical proper from the opening bell. Both males began off sizing one another up. As the chapter wore on, nevertheless, Rodriguez was in a position to land nicely on the defending champion. Estrada, on the different hand, caught the challenger exhausting as Rodriguez was coming in.
Things remained tight in the second, however Estrada was in a position to discover his mark on quite a few events. Rodriguez tagged the champion with a livid proper hook in the third. Estrada survived, however Rodriguez, combating behind a southpaw jab with excessive finish footwork, dominated his man. A vicious straight left put the champion down in the fourth. Estrada gamely received to his ft, however the man was in deep trouble. Indeed, he slipped to the mat earlier than the bell to finish the spherical.
Perhaps surprisingly, Estrada took to trudging away at the gifted challenger in the fifth. Still, Rodriguez was in a position to rock Estrada quite a few occasions, wobbling Estrada, ultimately begging the query of how far more did Estrada have in him? Then, out of the blue, it was Rodriguez who received dropped in the first minute of the sixth. The challenger beat the rely, however the level had been made. War had damaged out in Phoenix…
…however the struggle was going to finish shortly. The seventh was excessive vitality, as the earlier rounds had been, however an explosive shot to the liver put Estrada down and out. Rodriguez was so assured of his victory that he walked in direction of his fallen foe whereas the referee was nonetheless counting.
*Images: Matchroom
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