By: Sean Crose
Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, the 22-year-old undefeated WBC super flyweight world champion, slid through the ropes at T-Mobil Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night to take on Israel Gonzalez 28-4-1 in a championship affair scheduled for 12 rounds. This was Rodriguez’s 16-0 first title defense, as well as the co-main event of the Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin 3 pay-per-view undercard.
The pace was strong and fast in the first, with both men throwing and landing solid shots, and Gonzalez wisely exercising his body. The second round was close and exciting, but the southpaw Rodriguez did a better job, just throwing and landing more punches. Rodriguez went on to effectively push the action in the third, but Gonzalez was able to find the target of him repeatedly with direct, stinging punches.
The fourth was a power affair, with each man throwing thunder. The pace and action continued to be grueling in the fifth, though the ferocious Rodriguez seemed to have gotten the better of him. The sixth was a war of attrition in which each man threw with such frequency and violence that it was literally sometimes painful to watch, let alone endure as a combatant. What made the seventh extraordinary is that both men were essentially able to maintain the same blistering pace that they had established in the previous rounds. Rodriguez’s shots, however, seemed to be taking their toll on Gonzalez.
Time ran out in the eighth due to an accidental clash of heads. The action resumed and Rodriguez seemed to finally begin to assert control of the fight, but two low blows on Gonzalez caused the referee to deduct a point from the defending champion. Rodriguez continued to work on Gonzalez in the ninth, perhaps giving himself the edge heading into the later rounds. The tenth was a high-octane affair, but it was RodrÃguez who clearly dominated.
Gonzalez went down for another low blow in the eleventh. RodrÃguez then went on to dominate the round. González gave 110% in the twelfth and final round, but was outclassed by RodrÃguez anyway. He held on to his title with scores of 118-109, 117-110, 114-113
