by Keith Idec
PHILADELPHIA – Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez was his typical superior, pound-for-pound self Saturday night.
The unbeaten WBC super flyweight champion overwhelmed Pedro Guevara with pressure and precise, punishing punches during their co-feature on the Jaron Ennis-Karen Chukhadzhian undercard at Wells Fargo Center. Rodriguez (21-0, 14 KOs), a strong southpaw from San Antonio, dropped a reluctant Guevara (42-5-1, 22 KOs) twice in the third round and became the first opponent to beat the Mexican contender inside the distance.
“I really didn’t expect that,” Rodriguez told DAZN’s Chris Mannix of Guevara’s movement. “I really thought he was gonna 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 learned from those two fights, where I didn’t look as good and improved tonight.”
Rodriguez referred to his two previous victories, stoppages of Mexico’s Juan Francisco Estrada (44-4, 28 KOs) and England’s Sunny Edwards (21-1, 4 KOs) that solidified Rodriguez as one of boxing’s top 10 fighters, pound-for-pound.
Guevara, 35, wasn’t nearly as formidable as Estrada or Edwards. Unlike those two boxers, however, Guevara took a cautious approach to Rodriguez and couldn’t keep the aggressive offensive fighter off of him.
The sharper, stronger Rodriguez stalked Guevara from the time the opening bell rang, until his vicious right uppercut left him rolling around on the canvas. Referee Ricky Gonzalez stopped the fight at 2:47 of the third round, as soon as Guevara went down for the second time.
Rodriguez first dropped Guevara with a left that knocked him on his side with 41 seconds to go in the third round. Twenty-five seconds later, he went down again and couldn’t continue.
In the bout before Rodriguez’s easy victory, former WBA featherweight champ Raymond Ford dominated Puerto Rican southpaw Orlando Gonzalez on his way to a clear points victory in their 10-round junior lightweight bout.
Ford (16-1-1, 8 KOs), a southpaw from nearby Camden, New Jersey, landed an array of overhand lefts, stiff jabs and right hooks to the body while he controlled the action. Judges Robin Taylor and Tony Lundy scored the action a shutout for Ford, 100-88 apiece, whereas judge Dewey LaRosa credited Gonzalez with winning one round (99-89).
A right hook by Ford knocked Gonzalez (23-3, 13 KOs) to the seat of his trunks several seconds before the eighth round ended. Gonzalez got up, though, and, with blood flowing from his nose, made it to the ninth round.
An aggressive Ford tried to stop him during the ninth and 10th rounds, but a game Gonzalez survived to the final bell.
Ford fought for the first time since England’s Nick Ball beat him by split decision to take the WBA 126-pound championship from him June 1 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
