Video: Jesse Rodriguez drops Pedro Guevara twice to retain title by TKO

Rodriguez retains WBC super flyweight title & targets unification

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez came out victorious on November 9, when he faced Pedro Guevara at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The San Antonio southpaw defeated Mexico’s former world champion by way of stoppage, twice sending him to the canvas along the way.

Rodriguez scored the first knockdown dropping Guevara with a left hand that followed a repeated jab. The two-division world champion floored his opponent for the second and final time with a short uppercut. Referee Ricky Gonzalez waved the fight off at 2 minutes and 47 seconds into the third round.

With the victory, Jesse Rodriguez made the first successful defense of his WBC super flyweight title in his second reign. The 24-year-old improved to 21-0, 14 KOs and remained undefeated.

Pedro Guevara, who prior to the fight held the interim WBC 115 lbs belt, didn’t succeed in his attempt to claim a “full” strap and become a two-weight champion. The 35-year-old former WBC super strawweight titleholder dropped to 42-5-1, 22 KOs, which snapped his two-fight winning streak.

“I’m pretty happy, but I kind of already knew it was going to happen that way,” Rodriguez said about the stoppage. “I had a feeling, when you have that feeling, a fighter knows.”

“I really didn’t expect that [Guevara would move]. I really thought he was just going to stand there and fight a little bit more. But right when the bell rang he started moving a lot. But like I said in the fighter meeting, I’ve learned from those two [previous] fights where I didn’t look as good and it proved tonight.”

“I was just trying to prove everybody too much [in the previous fights]. I was getting out of my game plan trying to get the knockout and it just wasn’t who I am as a fighter. But you saw tonight who I am.”

“At that point of the fight [when uppercut landed] I was really just having fun. And whatever I was doing it was just coming natural.”

“I feel good. This is my weight class right now. Got a few more fights here and then we’ll see where we go from there.”

When asked what he wanted to do next, Jesse Rodriguez said: “Any unification fight. I’m ready right now.”

Phumelele Cafu (11-0-3, 8 KOs) of South Africa currently holds WBO title. Fernando Martinez (17-0, 9 KOs) of Argentina is a unified IBF and WBC champion.

Rodriguez also said “why not”, when asked whether he would face Nicaragua’s four-division world champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez.

The Rodriguez vs Guevara showdown served as the co-feature to Jaron Ennis’ IBF welterweight title defense in a rematch against Karen Chukhadzhian.

Parviz Iskenderov
Parviz Iskenderov is a former Muay Thai fighter, sports manager and editor at FIGHTMAG.

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