WBO champion Jesse “BAM” Rodriguez (19-0, 12 KOs) wore down and stopped IBF champ Sunny Edwards (20-1, 4 KOs) in the tenth round of a competitive unification fight on Saturday night at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
The 23-year-old ‘Bam’ Rodriguez loaded up on a left hand late in the ninth round and poleaxed Edwards, sending him crashing to the canvas face-first. Edwards got up at the count of eight, and looked in bad shape. Fortunately for him, the round ended just at that moment.
In Edwards’ corner, his training team checked him out and they decided not to have him come out for the tenth. However, the fight was officially stopped at one second into the tenth, but Edwards never came out for the round. He was standing in his corner when the referee halted it.
Bam Rodriguez had too much size, power, and youth for Sunny to deal with in this fight. Although the rounds were close, there never any doubt who was going to win because Rodriguez was wearing the 27-year-old Sunny down with his powerful jab and body shots.
By the second round, Sunny’s left eye was swelling up, looking like it was going to close. He changed stances to avoid his damaged eye from continuing to get hit, but it was no use. Rodriguez continued to target it.
Late in the sixth round, Bam Rodriguez hurt Sunny with a right hand that caused him to back up against the ropes. Bam then unloaded with a ten-punch flurry of headshots. The referee was looking in closely to potentially stop in.
In the final ten second of the round, Bam stuck out his tongue, taunting Sunny. At that point, Sunny charged forward quickly, nailing Rodriguez to the head while his tongue was still out, catching him with several more hard shots to the head before the round ended.
Bam resumed battering Sunny with hard shots to the head and body in the seventh round, opening up a second cut under his damaged eye. At the end of the round, the referee took a look at Sunny’s eye to see if it was bad enough for the ringside doctor to examine it.
Rodriguez upped the tempo in the eighth round, battering Sunny with hard punches to the head, and busting him up badly. Although Sunny was still landing occasional eye-catching shots, he was taking a beating from Rodriguez and looking in woeful shape.
