Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez won the WBC junior bantamweight title on Saturday night at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, knocking out Juan Francisco Estrada in the seventh round in a bout that was a Fight of the Year candidate.
Rodriguez (20-0, 13 KOs), who entered the bout as a -550 favorite according to ESPN BET, put Estrada in a tough spot in the third round with a right uppercut. Estrada managed to bounce back in the third round, but Rodriguez knocked Estrada down in the fourth round with a perfect left uppercut-left straight combination.
The 24-year-old Rodriguez continued to throw punches in the next round, starting with a lead jab. A straight left again sent Estrada to the ropes, and uppercuts and left punches followed. Rodriguez had the speed and power to beat Estrada.
Rodriguez appeared to be in complete control of the bout, but the 34-year-old Estrada dropped him with two lead jabs followed by a straight right in the sixth round. Rodriguez managed to recover and continued to land left hands and right uppercuts.
With seconds left in the seventh round, Rodriguez landed a left hook to the body that sent Estrada to the mat, clearly in pain and unable to recover in time.
“I hit him with a good body shot,” Rodriguez said in the post-fight interview, “and when I saw him roll to the floor, I knew that was the end.”
“I knew he would get up and I was ready for the next round, but he stayed down and that was it.”
At the time of the stoppage, Estrada was leading 57-56 on one scorecard, Rodriguez was leading 58-54 on the other, and the third official ruled the bout tied.
It was Rodriguez’s first win of 2024 and his second time winning the WBC belt at 115 pounds. Estrada fought for the first time since his trilogy fight with future Hall of Famer Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez in December 2022, following an 18-month hiatus in his career.
Estrada (44-4, 28 KOs) was on an eight-fight winning streak and, prior to Saturday's bout, had not lost more than six years ago, losing a majority decision to Sisaket Sor Rungvisai in February 2018 but avenged that loss a year later.
Estrada may have one more big fight in store: The future Hall of Famer has the right to a rematch and said after the fight that he intends to exercise that right.
“I know the mistakes I made there, so I want a rematch,” Estrada said. “So I'm open to a rematch and I have no doubt I'll win the rematch.”
Rodriguez is on the brink of breaking into the pound-for-pound top 10. After the fight, he said he plans to stay in the junior bantamweight division and seek to unify the titles against the winner of the July 7 unification bout between Fernando Martinez and Kazuto Ioka in Japan.
