Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez’s easiest fight on paper this year turned out to be his hardest in the ring.
Rodriguez, who caused a sensation by outpointing Carlos Cuadras and stopping Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in back-to-back fights, defeated a stubborn Israel Gonzalez by unanimous decision to retain his 115-pound title on the Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin undercard on Saturday in Las Vegas.
The scores were 118-109, 117-110 and 114-113. Boxing Junkie scored 115-112 for Rodriguez, eight rounds to four.
RodrÃguez (17-0, 11 KOs) had to work hard to get the victory.
Gonzalez, a four-time title challenger from Mexico, got off to a fast start by outboxing Rodriguez, including several body shots, in the early rounds.
However, in the third or fourth round, Rodriguez picked up the pace and began throwing a variety of punches that were harder and cleaner than his lighter-punching opponent, which obviously impressed the judges.
And the 22-year-old from San Antonio had some of his best rounds down the stretch, when the outcome seemed in doubt. Boxing Junkie had the fight even after nine rounds, but he gave Rodriguez the last three rounds, giving him the win on our undercard.
Overall, Gonzalez (28-5-1, 11 KOs) threw more punches than Rodriguez, but the winner slipped or blocked a lot of them and few did any damage.
Rodriguez lost a point for a low blow in Round 8 and could have lost another in Round 11, but referee Kenny Bayless called the second foul, sending Gonzalez to his knees.
Of course, a second point deduction would not have influenced the outcome given the two single-sided cards.
Rodriguez, 3-0 this year, remains a candidate for Fighter of the Year. He could face the winner of the title fight between Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman Gonzalez in December.
Israel Gonzalez is 0-4 in world title fights, though he probably performed well enough on Saturday to stay in contention for another shot at the belt.
