Boxing
‘Bam’ Rodriguez Smiles as He Takes Another Amazing Victory
OFTEN what makes a fighter exceptional, rather than simply good, is the way he wins his fights. A good fighter, as you can see, will win his fights and consider that sufficient, whereas a fighter will not only win his fights, but will win them in a way that suggests he will not be satisfied with victory until his opponent is completely defeated, defeated, that is, by stoppage or submission.
In the case of Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, he definitely falls into the latter category. This should be even more impressive when you consider that Rodriguez is a super-fly, standing just five feet, four inches statuesque and weighing 115 pounds. And yet, despite these so-called limitations, Rodriguez doesn’t just win fights, he wins them. He doesn’t just beat world-class opponents; he beats them like they’ve never been beaten before.
It happened again on the night when Rodriguez, still only 24 years senior, stopped up-to-date champion Juan Francisco Estrada in the seventh round, taking the Mexican’s WBC super flyweight title. As always, a victory of any kind would have been enough for Estrada, but, in keeping with the Texan’s habit, he was determined to make sure it wasn’t just any victory. Indeed, just as he did with Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (whom he stopped in eight rounds in 2022) and Sunlit Edwards (whom he stopped in nine in 2023), Rodriguez looked to beat Estrada in a way that few had anticipated; a way that would require maximum risk on his part but ultimately yield maximum reward.
And so he did. He attacked Estrada, naturally defensive, with the aggression and intensity of a man hungry for a stoppage, and in the fourth round he managed to knock down the champion for the first time in the fight.
Truly lovely, Rodriguez ventured forward with a right jab, followed by a left hook that caught Estrada, then followed with an additional right jab and a left cross, the final blow doing damage. Estrada slumped to the mat as a result, no doubt shocked by both the variety of his opponent’s attack and the venom in his punches. Already dazed and down, he knew he could get hurt. Moreover, only Carlos Cuadras (twice in 2020) and Juan Carlos Sanchez (twice in separate fights in 2011) had managed to drop Estrada before.
If he were to get hurt and dropped relatively early, it would be simple to point to Estrada’s age (34) and remind yourself that he’s a decade older than Rodriguez. That wouldn’t be a huge deal if both were competing above, say, welterweight, but it’s generally assumed that fighters in the lower weight classes are finished or close to it by the time they hit their mid-30s. Whether that’s the case for Estrada, 44-4 (28), is not for me to judge, but his recent period of inactivity certainly hasn’t helped — Estrada hasn’t fought at all in 2023 — and even if he’s busy and enjoying the momentum, the last fighter you want to face at 34 is someone like Rodriguez, that whirling dervish of both boyish enthusiasm and serial-killing malice.
Rodriguez lands a right hook (Amanda Westcott/Matchroom)
That said, no one questioned Estrada’s experience or smarts. They didn’t question them before, and they didn’t question them in the sixth round, when Estrada used both to lure Rodriguez into a trap and returned the favor, knocking the champion down with a stiff right hook. In many ways, Estrada used Rodriguez’s enthusiasm against him in that moment. He let him come forward, waited until he was unprepared and ready to fight, then exploded with a sudden double-punch, right-hook combination that stung Rodriguez, caught him off guard, and sent him crashing to the canvas.
More embarrassed than hurt, Rodriguez scrambled to his feet as soon as he was taken off, and he did so with regret. It was, if anything, a reminder; a reminder that no matter how dominant he might become in a fight, there was always danger lurking around every corner. He was undoubtedly ashamed to touch the board, but with that embarrassment came a grudging respect, as well as gratitude. After all, Rodriguez, having been defeated, had no choice but to refocus and raise his game to an even higher level. What’s more, now that the score is 1-1 in knockdowns, he had even more motivation to take Estrada down again and secure the victory he had dreamed of all along.
Much can be conveyed through a smile, and Jesse Rodriguez’s smile, now 20-0 (13), is no different in that respect. The smile on his face after being knocked down in the sixth round, for example, revealed a great deal about his state of mind, while the one in the seventh round, after finishing Estrada with a vicious left hook to the body, was the smile of pure satisfaction; the smile of a man who knew his work here was done. That it could be seen on his face as Estrada writhed in pain on the canvas made it all the more powerful and terrifying. To end the fight that way, walking around the ring with a grin from ear to ear, only reveals how special “Bam” really is.
Estrada writhes in pain (Melina Pizano/Matchroom)
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