Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez patiently slipped punches and flashed a devilish smile before he unleashed a straight left hand from hell to knock out Fernando Martinez on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
With the 10th-round stoppage win<\/a>, Rodriguez (23-0, 16 KOs) added another 115-pound belt to his collection,<\/a> picking up Martinez’s WBA title in the process. Rodriguez came into the clash as part of \u201cThe Ring IV: Night of the Champions\u201d in Saudi Arabia already carrying The Ring, WBC, and WBO crowns, and now he\u2019ll have his sights set on snatching the IBF title for undisputed champion status before moving on to the bantamweight division. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was a tough fight. I knew Martinez was going to be a tough opponent. He was a lot tougher than I expected,\u201d Rodriguez told reporters. \u201cI hit him with everything, and he made it to the 10th round, but I was able to go out there and get the job done. Thankfully, that last shot ended the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n Rodriguez, a masterful southpaw, outclassed and outlanded Martinez 276-131 while throwing 717 punches, nearly 200 more, according to CompuBox. <\/p>\n \u201cThere is a lot more that you all haven’t seen,\u201d said Rodriguez, The Ring\u2019s No. 6 pound-for-pound fighter<\/a>. \u201cI just go out there and have fun. There are a lot of sparring sessions in the gym that I feel are a lot better than I did against Martinez.\u201d If Rodriguez cleans out the 115-pound division after facing the winner of Garcia-Teraji, a 118-pound run should be next, followed by perhaps much talked much-talked-about clashes against undisputed 122-pound king Inoue and even Junto Nakatani soon after. <\/p>\n \u201cHe is a phenomenal talent at just 25,\u201d Martinez\u2019s promoter Eddie Hearn said on DAZN\u2019s broadcast Saturday. \u201cHe\u2019s getting better and better and better with every performance. He beat the No. 2 guy in Martinez without even coming out of second gear. He constantly tried to get him out of there even when he was winning so comfortably. He kept taking chances, trying to get the stoppage. <\/p>\n
After comfortably crushing The Ring\u2019s No. 2-ranked contender in the wee hours of the morning on the week he welcomed his son, who was born in Texas, Rodriguez will wait and see how the bout between IBF champion Willibaldo Garcia<\/a> and Kenshiro Teraji<\/a> unfolds on December 27 so that he can take on the winner.
\u201cNow, after this victory, I should be No. 4 pound-for-pound,\u201d said Rodriguez, a free agent. \u201cI have Terence Crawford, Oleksandr Usyk, Naoya Inoue and then myself. I had Dmitry Bivol at No. 4 before, but I feel like this kind of performance I had versus Martinez should put me at No. 4.\u201d<\/p>\n