If it wasn't clear before, it should be obvious now — Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez has taken over the super flyweight division and is an absolute pound-for-pound boxing star.
The 24-year-old phenom loaded up on a vicious left hand to the liver for a seventh-round knockout of Juan Francisco Estrada to become the new WBC and Ring Magazine super flyweight world champion Saturday night at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, and live on DAZN.
"I saw the way he was rolling on the floor," Rodriguez told DAZN's Chris Mannix of the knockout shot, "I knew that was it."
Though he collected his 20th professional victory in devastating fashion and outboxed the legend Estrada, "Bam" had to show reslience himself. After scoring a knockdown with a straight left hand in the fourth round, Rodriguez was shocked when Estrada exacted revenge with a left-right combo for a flash knockdown in the sixth.
"I got dropped for the first time — that was crazy," Rodriguez said. "I just got caught with a punch, the next thing you know I was on the floor but I've always wanted to experience that. I know it's bad but I always pictured myself in a fight like this. To be in the ring with 'El Gallo,' a legend, and to take his belts ... it makes it that much more better."
In defeating a veteran like Estrada (44-4, 28 KOs), Rodriguez adds another legend to his victim list as his young career already counts back-to-back wins over Carlos Cuadras and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in an eye-opening 2022.
"Here I am taking over the division," he tacked on.
"Bam" immediately set the tone against the 34-year-old Estrada by asserting nimble footwork and slick boxing that "El Gallo" just couldn't figure out Saturday night. Estrada boxed Rodriguez well during the early stages of the fourth round before "Bam" erased his diligence with a straight left hand for a knockdown.
He'd buzz Estrada in the fifth, before the veteran managed to shock the younger fighter with a flash knockdown in the sixth — though "Bam" ended that round strongly.
Rodriguez then measured Estrada and sat on a piercing liver shot in the seventh that folded "El Gallo" in a heap of pain that he couldn't come back from.
Here's how the entire Rodriguez-Estrada main card went.