LAS VEGAS – Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez continued his breakout year with a hard-fought unanimous decision over Israel Gonzalez to retain the WBC junior bantamweight title Saturday night in the Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin III co-feature on T-Mobile. Sand.
Rodriguez, who at 22 is boxing’s youngest active world champion, retained his 115-pound title for the second time and won his third fight of the year though he was by no means easy on Gonzalez. The judges scored it 118-109, 117-110 and 114-113 for Rodriguez, who took plenty of hits and didn’t have the kind of impressive performance he had in his two big wins earlier in the year.
And Still ????
Scorecards: 118-109, 117-110, 114-113… @210bam #RodriguezGonzalez #CaneloGGG3 pic.twitter.com/2HW0UGZ1YS
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) September 18, 2022
Big Fight Weekend had Rodriguez winning 116-111.
Rodriguez was considered a hot prospect when he burst onto the world stage in February and won the vacant belt. He dropped and comfortably outpointed former champion Carlos Cuadras in a fight he took on six days notice, moving up in weight, as a replacement for the ailing Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.
Then in June, Rodriguez thrilled his hometown San Antonio crowd in his first defense by knocking out former two-time champion Sor Rungvisai in the eighth round in a performance even more impressive than his victory over Cuadras.
Next up was Gonzalez, who was back and forth for much of the fight.
There was plenty of back-and-forth action in the fourth round as Gonzalez (28-5-1, 11 KOs), 25, of Mexico, found some success when he forced Rodriguez to the ropes and put tremendous pressure on him. . But Rodriguez (17-0, 11 KOs) also got the punches from him as both men let their hands fly.
They threw a lot of body shots, but they also got wide and referee Kenny Bayless warned them at the same time in the fifth round to keep up their punches.
In the eighth round, an accidental headbutt caused a brief timeout while Gonzalez was examined by the ringside doctor. Immediately after the fight resumed, Rodriguez hit Gonzalez low and Bayless warned him again. And then Rodriguez hit low again. Gonzalez went to the canvas and Bayless took a point from Rodriguez as he gave Gonzalez time to recover.
Rodriguez had a strong ninth round, perhaps looking to make up for the point deduction, and attacked Gonzalez all the way and landed several clean shots. The tenth was more of the same, as Rodriguez continued his late-fighting spree, though he hit Gonzalez low once more in the eleventh round, though he was not penalized. With the win, Rodriguez can return on December 3 to fight in the co-feature of the third fight between lineal champion Juan Francisco Estrada and legendary four-division champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez. If Rodriguez wins on that card, Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn would like to pair him with next year’s main event winner.
Israel Gonzalez dropped to 0-4 in a world title shot, he also lost Jerwin Ancajas by 10th-round knockout in 2018, by majority decision to Kal Yafai later in 2018 and by lopsided unanimous decision to Roman Gonzalez in 2020.
Akhmedov turns off Rosado
Super middleweight Ali Akhmedov, a protégé of Golovkin, boxed and moved and completely outclassed former world title challenger Gabriel Rosado en route to a shutout decision.
All three judges scored the fight 100-90 for Akhmedov, who handed Rosado his third straight decision loss following losses to former junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia in November and Shane Mosley Jr. in April.
Akhmedov (19-1, 14 KOs), 27, of Kazakhstan, was quick with his punches and put together many combinations, while Rosado (26-16-1, 15 KOs), 36, of Philadelphia, never landed. nothing remarkable. A right hand in the fifth round rocked Rosado, who received a hairline cut.
Williams outpoints Conway
Promising middleweight Austin Williams scored a knockdown en route to a convincing unanimous decision over Kieron Conway to win a vacant regional title.
Fighting on his second Alvarez undercard, Williams won 97-92, 97-92 and 96-93 in his first fight since returning to trainer Dwight Pratchett for the fight after an amicable split with Kevin Cunningham, with whom he had worked on his previous three fights.
As Williams, who was more aggressive and threw a lot of right hands, began to guard Conway more regularly in the later rounds, Conway began to hang on.
In the ninth round, Williams (12-0, 9 KOs), 26, of Houston, dropped him to his knees in a corner with a swift right uppercut. Conway (17-3-1, 3 KOs), 26, of England, got up quickly but his face was smeared with blood. Conway fell to 0-2 in fights in the United States, after losing a 10-round split decision. to Souleymane Cissokho on the Alvarez-Billy Joe Saunders card in May 2021 in Arlington, Texas.
