So hey - remember Francisco "Chihuas" Rodriguez Jr.? Sure you do. Top rated strawweight, stopped Chango Vargas (no small feat) and maybe retired him, then gave Chocolatito a game argument despite losing every round last year, and went on to deflower Sabillo for the WBO 105lb title and defend it against Katsunari Takayama in a leading FOTY candidate? Well, unbeknownst to probably everybody, he fought a few days ago, in the Philippines, on the undercard of Donnie Nietes vs. Carlos Velarde, in a non-title bout, against 14-5-1 (7) Jomar Fajardo, televised in the USA on approximately ~12-hour delay on beIN Sports en Español. ...and was held to a draw over 10. ...and may have been fortunate to get so much as that. :blood I was half asleep watching the replay, and didn't actively score it RBR, exhausted from a long day (went to a kids' birthday party and then did 5 RBR threads over a ten hour span: Klitschko vs. Pulev, Heiland vs. Macklin, Ramírez Sánchez vs. Zuniga, Jackson vs. Jerez, and Mijares vs. Medrano :dead) - but to my eyes it seemed the plucky young Pinoy...well...kicked Rodriguez's ass from pillar to post, all over the ring. :shock: No exaggeration. The result on paper would be odd enough. I can hardly believe it, having seen it with my own eyes. There is nothing on Fajardo's record to suggest he would last the distance with Rodriguez or be anything other than a tuneup on the wrong end of a violent mismatch (the men Fajardo had lost to or drawn with in the past - three of them stopping Fajardo - had a combined record of 39-55-11). In reality - nope. That is so not what happened. You would've thought Fajardo the champ and Rodriguez the nobody, from their respective body language and ring generalship throughout. I thought Fajardo, though he ate plenty of clean leather in return, managed to hurt Rodriguez in just about every round, and seemed to have won most of them - certainly more than half as on the drawn card, and way more than just two as one judge gave him. All three judges were Filipino, too! Wildly divergent scores, with Arnel Pasion's 96-94 to Wallopman coming off as the most reasonable on the surface. Even stranger, there was nothing I could point to in Rodriguez's performance to explain it. He didn't seem to have fought all that differently than other times I've seen him. Nothing about it spoke to an "off night", physically. He didn't look undersized. He didn't look drawn or weight drained and didn't gas early (in fact swapping punches in bunches with Fajardo the entire night). He didn't favor either hand as though injured. He didn't seem to have overlooked Fajardo and not trained, and came in his usual shape. He just...got the worst of it. Consistently. Fair and square. It was as if Fajardo's style completely threw him for a loop. A big loop. There is nothing especially complicated about his style, either. Quite the opposite. The kid just sets a high pace and throws bombs. He triples his jab mainly in a flash-bang manner to blind his opponent and then just starts wailing on him up close, with power shots on the head and body in about equal proportion. He shifts in with alternating uppercuts while stepping in with either foot, completely unconcerned with anything he gets hit with in the process. For some reason all of that had world class Rodriguez looking scared and confused. Damnedest thing. It wasn't even the only seriously bizarre "upset" on the card. Sabillo, who as recently as March held a world title, was cut up by punches and stopped in four by the 8-6-3 (2) Faris Nenggo. :huh So...from here, I don't know. Do we start paying attention to Fajardo, now 22, as maybe someone that could be improving despite unfavorable early career management, and possibly an eventual threat outside his domestic scene? Or do we just consider Rodriguez's stock to be lowered, and in turn Sabillo's (which the Nenggo result helps with, for certain) and Takayama's? Or do we just shrug and repeat ":conf styles make fights :good" and move on?
Oh and for the record, it was at flyweight, but was hardly Rodriguez's debut there or anything. Most of his career (ten bouts) has actually been at flyweight, with 5 at light fly and 3 at straw - and that includes his biggest victories before Sabillo in Ruiz & Vargas.
Well if he is coming in overweight for a scheduled flyweight contest, two division north of minimum to start out with, I would guess he can't any longer, no. :yep I don't think his struggles with Fajardo pertained to weight, though. Or if they did, only in part. He was more just taken aback completely by Fajardo's style - and Fajardo might be a little better than his record indicates.
I'd advise strongly against that. Besides, at this point, that would actually be moving back down in weight. Nietes is a solid titlist - a bit of a homebody like a Narvaez but he is legit.
That's right - I meant to but completely forgot to mention, the craziest part of all this is that Fajardo was coming off a knockout loss in which he was dominated (http://philboxing.com/news/story-97616.html) and decked several times by the 14-5-5 (4) Benezer Alolod. Boggles the mind that he was the one cutting the ring off and smacking up a unified titlist coming off his biggest moment of glory. The only logical thing I can think of is that his FOTY with Tayakama may have been taxing on Rodriguez - but again, he fought exactly the same and really appeared no different or worse for the wear. :huh
obviously the filipino came to fight. he had nothng to lose as shown by his incredible effort. probably was motivated for this fight against a champion in another weightclass
Yeah. Just too bad his own countryman screwed him. :!: Like I said, I didn't actively score it RBR, but 98-92 Rodriguez? That is up there with Roth's 116-112 Rios over Abril or Givens' 116-114 Williams over Lara Iin terms of just in no defensible way reflecting what happened.
Rodriguez schooled that sloppy kid easy. Although Rod got caught early with a wild shot that busted his nose. But apart from that he had superior boxing skills and ability. Albert Pagara on the other hand convincingly beat Hirales no controversy here. Surprise of the night was Merlito Sabillo getting KTFO by an unknown Indonesian kid.