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‘Bam’ Rodriguez TKOs Sunny Edwards in an Arizona Firefight

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Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, the pride of San Antonio, added the IBF flyweight belt to his own WBO diadem tonight in Glendale, Arizona, with a late stoppage of British invader Sunny Edwards. The official time of the stoppage was 1 second into round 10 for it was then that referee Chris Flores acknowledged that Edwards’ corner had tossed in the towel.

This shaped up as a chess match between two crafty fighters but became much more, a Pier 6-type rumble that eventually turned in favor of the harder hitter. Edwards was bleeding from cuts around both eyes when Rodriguez delivered the clincher late in round nine, a harsh straight left to the jaw that sent the Englishman sprawling face-first to the canvas. Edwards (20-0 heading in) hadn’t previously been knocked down.

Rodriguez, a 23-year-old southpaw, had his coming out party in Phoenix on Feb. 5 of last year with a Lomachenko-like performance against Mexican veteran Carlos Cuadras, a fight that he took on five days’ notice. That gave him the WBA 115-pound title which he successfully defended with wins over Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (TKO 8) and Israel Gonzalez (UD 12).

This year he dropped down in weight and became a two-division title-holder with a unanimous decision over Christian Gonzalez. He plans to move back up to 115 for his next fight and is targeting Juan Francisco Estrada whose name is found on many pound-for-pound lists.

Sunny Edwards, a Londoner currently living and training in Sheffield, won the IBF belt in 2021 with a wide decision over long-reigning title-holder Moruti Mthalene and made five successful defenses before running into ‘Bam’ who also came in undefeated and is now 19-0 (12 KOs). Tonight, Edwards arguably edged the first four rounds, but had no chance when he elected to trade with Rodriguez and was well-beaten at the finish.

Other Bouts

In a battle of southpaws, Morodjon “MJ” Akhmadaliev, in his first fight back since losing his IBF and WBA super bantamweight title belts to Marlon Tapales, scored an eighth-round stoppage of Culiacan’s previously undefeated Kevin Gonzalez who was 26-0-1 heading in.

MJ (12-1, 9 KOs), put Gonzalez on the deck four times. The first two knockdowns were debatable but not the third or the fourth. Before referee Mark Calo-oy halted the mismatch at the 2:49 mark of round four, Akhmadaliev was credited with landing four times as many power punches. A 2016 Olympic bronze medalist for Uzbekistan, Akhmadaliev trains in Indio, CA. under the tutelage of the Diaz brothers.

In a flyweight contest with a lot of punches but no fireworks, Galal Yafai (6-0, 4 KOs) won a unanimous 10-round decision over stubborn but outclassed SoCal veteran Rocco Santomauro (22-3). Yafai, a gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, is the youngest of three fighting brothers from Birmingham, England, one of whom (Khalid) won a world title at 115. At age 31, Yafai has been fast-tracked. All six of his pro fights were slated for 10 rounds.

In the PPV opener, Liverpool super bantamweight Peter McGrail was way ahead of Detroit’s Ja’Rico O’Quinn through four-plus rounds and then the roof suddenly fell in on him. A counter right knocked McGrail into dreamland. The official time was 2:19 of round five.

McGrail, who was 8-0 heading in, showed great skills in his U.S. debut, but those skills couldn’t compensate for a fragile chin. O’Quinn improved to 17-1-1 (9 KOs).

In a very entertaining scrap between two unbeaten junior middleweights, Junaid Bostan, a Sunny Edwards stablemate, improved to 8-0 (6) with a unanimous 8-round decision over Detroit’s Gordie Russ II. A nephew of the noted trainer SugarHill Steward, Russ had knocked out all six of his previous opponents, but this was his first contest against an opponent with a winning record. The scores were 79-73 across the board which struck many as a tad too wide.

Photo credit: Ed Mulholland / Matchroom

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