‘Bam’ Rodriguez TKOs Sunny Edwards in an Arizona Firefight

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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