Wham, ‘Bam’: Rodriguez dazzles in first defense at 115

Wham. Bam.

In his first 47 pro fights, Pedro Guevara had never been stopped. In fact, all four of his defeats had come by either split or majority decision after 12 rounds.

But against lineal junior bantamweight champion and pound-for-pound entrant Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez on Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Guevara couldn’t make it out of the third round. Rodriguez, a southpaw from San Antonio, scored two knockdowns of the Mexican veteran, and at 2 minutes and 47 seconds of the third, wham, bam – that was that.

“I’m pretty happy [with my performance],” Rodriguez, 24, said after making his first title defense, “but I already kind of knew it was going to happen that way.”

The oddsmakers who pegged Rodriguez as a -1800 favorite couldn’t have been too surprised either – though it wasn’t so obvious that he would produce the knockout against a man with Guevara’s track record.

The 35-year-old Guevara, 42-5-1 (22 KOs), came out moving quite a bit, and Rodriguez, 21-0 (14 KOs), showed his exceptional boxing craft as he pursued the challenger. Nothing dramatic happened in the opening round, but it was entirely one-sided as Guevara hardly landed a punch.

In the second, Rodriguez began landing lead right hooks, and started to tip that he was trying to set up Guevara for his uppercut. Bam balanced both hot pursuit with constant defensive responsibility, and though Guevara ambitiously threw a few body shots, he was clearly little more than a prop in the Rodriguez road show.

A sudden straight southpaw left from Rodriguez in the third floored Guevara, and he sprung up quickly. Moments after the fight resumed, Rodriguez crashed home a nasty right uppercut to the jaw in the corner, and Guevara collapsed on his back. Ref Ricky Gonzalez got about halfway through the 10-count before deciding to wave off the contest.

“I really thought he was going to stand there and fight a little bit more, but right from the beginning, he was moving,” Rodriguez said. “You saw tonight who I am.”

Asked by DAZN’s Chris Mannix who or what he wanted next, Rodriguez said, “A unification fight.” Mannix also queried about his interest in a fight with future Hall of Famer Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez – with whom Rodriguez sparred earlier this year – and Bam declared, “I’m ready for it. If a unification doesn’t come, why not?”

Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, Ringside Seat, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X or LinkedIn, or via email at [email protected].