Sunny Edwards, a British fighter, and Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, an American, entered their unification bout on December 16, at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona with a world title and an undefeated record respectively, but Rodriguez, 23, emerged victorious.
Before dropping Edwards at the end of Round 9 with an overhand left and a body blow, Rodriguez slowly broke him. Despite having a badly broken face from the collision, Edwards managed to survive.
“I brought something out of him tonight that he couldn’t handle. He was a lot quicker than I thought; a lot smarter than I thought . I made him wanna fight. He got caught,” said Rodriguez in media reports.
At the moment of the stoppage, Rodriguez (19-0, 12 KOs) had the upper hand on the 89-81, 87-87, and 87-83 scorecards.
“Up close, that was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. This kid is super special. You talk about pound-for-pound great fighters. Sometimes the lower division don’t get the credit they deserve,” said promoter Eddie Hearn.
Despite his reputation for boxing prowess, defense, and footwork, Edwards (20-1, 4 KOs) chose to sit back on his shots and trade blows with Rodriguez in the pocket starting in Round 3. Edwards frequently unleashed sharp overhand lefts that found their target.
He started to outsmart Rodriguez with his moves. Edwards had only won four KOs in his previous 20 fights, though, and his strength was unable to withstand Rodriguez’s intense pressure. In the final seconds of Round 6, Rodriguez caught Edwards off guard with a sequence of blows before dropping his hands letting Edwards hit him with a series of shots.
Rodriguez was just too strong, too powerful, and too skilled for Edwards, 27, to compete with in a gutsy showdown in the closing moments.
“I couldn’t just keep moving, and moving and moving. His feet are too good for that, his lead hand was too good for that. I had to make him miss and try to land,” said Edward in media reports.
“The better man won tonight, no excuses. It wasn’t my night tonight but I’ll definitely be back for sure,” he added.
