Our knockout of the week today comes from Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, who spectacularly sent Fernando Martinez into the ring dust in Riyadh.
Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez continues his impressive run of victories in the super flyweight division. The 25-year-old once again made history in Riyadh: with a spectacular knockout in round 10, he dethroned the previously unbeaten Argentinian Fernando Martinez to unify the WBC, WBO, Ring Magazine and now WBA titles.
From the first bell, Rodriguez showed why he is currently considered the best 115-pounder in the world. His rhythm, his timing and his ability to dictate the tempo at all times left Martinez hardly any room to breathe. The Argentinian, known for his tireless forward pressure, found little to counter Rodriguez’s precision – on the contrary: after just a few rounds he was bleeding heavily from the nose and looked battered.
The longer the fight lasted, the clearer the Texan’s technical superiority became. Rodriguez varied between body shots and hard left hands to the head, while Martinez increasingly lost his effectiveness. In round 10, “Bam” finally put the exclamation mark: a clean left hook, Martinez goes down hard – and doesn’t make it up in time.
Text by Robin Josten