Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez unified the world super flyweight crown in Frisco, Texas, as he added the WBO belt to his WBC title with a 10th round stoppage of Phumelela Cafu on Saturday.
Rodriguez (22-0, 15 KOs) was last out last November, stopping Pedro Guevara in three to defend his WBC title, while South Africa’s Cafu (11-1-3, 8 KOs) travelled to Japan to win the WBO title in his last assignment, taking a close split decision against Kosei Tanaka.
Cafu fought very cautiously, staying almost exclusively on the ropes in the first two rounds, responding only on the counter.
Rodriguez was banking those rounds, and also the third and fourth on sheer workrate, although his eye showed signs of damage early on.
The visitor continued with his tactics, but it was bringing him little success, although he did have a bright seventh round where he landed to the body of ‘Bam’ to good effect.
It was a false dawn, as Rodriguez started to turn the screw, and Cafu was hurt to the body in the ninth, before the conclusion came just a round later.
A right hand nearly had the 26-year-old on the deck, as he tottered around the ring, and when Rodriguez went for the kill, both grappled to the canvas.
They rose, but Cafu’s corner had the towel in their hand, and the bout was waved off.
Rodriguez is set to now face IBF titlist, Fernando Martinez on November 22 in Saudi Arabia.
Pacheco defeats McCumby
The undercard saw Diego Pacheco (24-0, 18 KOs) defend his WBC USA and WBO International super middleweight titles, as he took a points win against Trevor McCumby (28-2, 21 KOs) over 12 rounds.
Scores of 120-108 and 119-109×2 reflected the dominance of Pacheco (24-0, 18 KOs), as he moved closer to world title contention.
Williams sees off Vazquez
Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams (19-1, 13 KOs) had a late change of opponent, and the American scored a ninth-round stoppage of Ivan Vazquez (11-1-2, 8 KOs) in their middleweight bout set for ten.
Remaining Undercard
Pablo Valdez (10-0, 9 KOs) was a third-round winner against Robert Redmond Jr (8-3-2, 6 KOs) in their super welterweight eight-rounder, and Omari Jones (3-0, 3 KOs) was also a third-round winner against Alfredo Rodolfo Blanco (24-15, 11 KOs) also at super welterweight.
Nishant Dev (3-0, 2 KOs) was a points winner over LaQuan Evans (5-6, 2 KOs) and Hector Beltran (3-0, 3 KOs) stopped Edgar Gutierrez (3-4, 2 KOs) in the third round. Both contests were at 154 pounds.
