Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez asserts that he deserves a spot in the top five of the pound-for-pound rankings following his victory over Mexican legend Juan Francisco Estrada in Phoenix on Saturday night.
With this win, Rodriguez, with a record of 20-0 (13 KOs), regained the WBC super-flyweight title and secured his first Ring Magazine championship belt.
“I’m the legend slayer. The better the opponent, the better I perform, I’ve always felt that way. It was just a matter of time until the world saw it,” said Rodriguez in media reports.
“I’ve been saying that I’m here at 115lbs for two or three fights, I know that there is a rematch clause with Estrada so if he wants to go through with that then we can run it back, if not, I want the winner of Kazuto Ioka and Fernando Martinez. It’s a great fight, I think Ioka might be a little too technical for Martinez so he’ll come out with the victory,” added Rodriguez.
Rodriguez came out aggressively from the start, and in the third round, he rocked Estrada with a sharp uppercut, maintaining pressure on the defending champion. In the following round, another significant moment occurred for the Texan when another uppercut set up a left hand that knocked down “El Gallo”.
However, as Rodriguez aimed to escalate his dominance and potentially end the fight before the halfway mark, Estrada electrified the packed arena by knocking down the 24-year-old for the first time in his career with a right hand.
Rodriguez regained his composure and finished the round strongly. Then, in the closing moments of the seventh round, came the pivotal moment: Rodriguez landed a devastating body shot with his left hand that brought Estrada to his knees. Throughout the fight, Rodriguez maintained control, despite one judge having Estrada ahead on points at the time of the stoppage.
“It’s my best win so far. As I said, he’s a legend, was on the pound-for-pound rankings for a very long time so to go out there and dominate him the way that I did – it says a lot about my performance and my talents,” remarked Rodriguez.
