Roman Gonzalez vs. Francisco Rodriguez Jr. RBR

Oh man, they hurled the kitchen sink at each other.

Rodriguez earned massive respect from Roman & the crowd - getting an ovation in Chocolitato's backyard - for standing up to so much for as long as he did.

The ref's stoppage was honestly a bit on the early side...but not unforgivable and not even the weakest stoppage I've seen today.

 

This was, since moving up from straw, Gonzalez's 3rd toughest battle at light fly after Chango Vargas and El Gallo Estrada. Rodriguez landed more telling blows on Gonzalez than anyone I've seen outside of those guys.

Also, Rodriguez has a h2h TKO over Vargas back in January, so between that and his performance tonight it's clear he is bound to become a player despite having an otherwise thin & padded resume. Of course, it's possible the once hard-as-nails Chango hasn't been the same ever since El Nica blitzed him a couple of years ago. Still, you can't argue with Rodriguez pushing Gonzalez to his limit here tonight. The kid's class... and classy, very humble and respectful toward Gonzalez in defeat.

 

Oh yeah...this was at flyweight. So Gonzalez jumped up two divisions to meet Barrera at super fly, and then dropped back down one. :blood

In any case, his business at 108lbs is probably concluded. His power and chin do look to have carried up mostly intact, but he really did look his best all the way down at minimum and unfortunately is far removed from making that.