Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez showed yet again Saturday night why he is the best junior bantamweight in boxing.
The undefeated San Antonio native dominated
Fernando Martinez and won their 115-pound title unification bout by 10th-round knockout at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Rodriguez retained his Ring, WBC and WBO belts and took the WBA championship from Argentina’s Martinez on “
The Ring IV: Night of the Champions” pay-per-view card.
Rodriguez had undoubtedly won each of the first nine rounds before he uncorked a left hand that knocked Martinez flat on his back with 1:45 to go in the 10th round. Martinez couldn’t get up before referee Edward Collantes counted out the battered, bloodied former champion at 1:25 of the 10th.
Rodriguez (23-0, 16 KOs) wants to become the fully unified champion in his division before he moves up to bantamweight. The 25-year-old Rodriguez, No. 6 on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list, told
The Ring he wants to face the winner of the December 27 bout in Riyadh between IBF champ
Willibaldo Garcia Perez and former flyweight and junior flyweight champ Kenshiro Teraji.
Rodriguez would be heavily favored over Garcia Perez or
Teraji, the way he was against Martinez (18-1, 9 KOs), The Ring’s No. 1 junior bantamweight contender.
Their bout became somewhat boring before Rodriguez drilled Martinez with the shot that ended it.
After completely controlling the eighth round, Rodriguez landed a left that made Martinez stumble backward, into a corner, with approximately 45 seconds to go in the ninth round. A demoralized Martinez was a battered, beaten man by that point.
Rodriguez seemed to hurt Martinez to the body during the final minute of the seventh round. He also landed various lefts up top on Martinez in those three minutes.
The bout became mundane by the sixth round, as Rodriguez effortlessly picked apart Martinez. The former champion complained after another lopsided round that his bloody nose bothered him.
Rodriguez remained in control during an easy fifth round for him. Martinez seemed discouraged by then because he couldn’t mount much offense.
Rodriguez kept pressing forward in the fourth round, when he landed to Martinez’s head and body. His skill, speed and power were too much for Rodriguez, who bled badly from his nose by that point in their fight.
A left uppercut by Rodriguez caught Martinez in the third round. Rodriguez landed a right to the body in the second round that got Martinez’s attention. Martinez tried to keep Rodriguez from coming forward, but he couldn’t do it.
Martinez landed a wide right hand with just over 1:40 to go in the first round, but Rodriguez took it well.
CompuBox Stats: This was a masterclass by Bam Rodriguez in dominating Fernando Martinez. Rodriguez landed 276 of 717, 38% total punches while Martinez landed 131 of 520, 25%. Rodriguez landed 232 of 492, 47% power punches. It was one big left hand that ended matters at 1:25 of round 10.
Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.