Eddie Hearn labeled Bam Rodriguez vs Sunny Edwards as the best fighting the best Saturday night at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Bam Rodriguez, of San Antonio, moved to 19-0 (12), picked up the IBF Flyweight belt to add to his WBO title, and gave one of the ten best performances promoter Eddie Hearn has ever seen by absolutely destroying Sunnty Edwards of London, England.
After a competitive couple of opening rounds that saw Bam investing to the body and Edwards moving and using his jab. The rounds were reasonably close and competitive. However, it was Rodriguez landing the more meaningful shots. A vintage Bam right hook scored in the second round with about 45 seconds to go caught the attention of the Brit. Edwards bounced back with a strong third, but that was really the last moment of success he had. The fourth round saw Rodriguez pick up the pace. The now unified champ said in the press conference that he had "figured it out and saw Edwards slowing down" at this point. Edwards's eye was swelling badly, so he decided to switch to southpaw. It did nothing to confuse or frustrate the Alamo City native. Rodriguez out-jabbed the Brit and scored with powerful hooks that drove him backward into the ropes, and Rodriguez would do damage to the body of Edwards while he was in the ropes. The Texan stayed downstairs as Edwards began to slow down and became more stationary as the rounds went on. Bam began teeing off on his opponent, and it became abundantly clear that Rodriguez was going to get his man out of there. It was just a matter of when. The when came in the ninth round as Rodriguez had put together a sustained rally, and had his opponent in a world of trouble and then ended it abruptly, with an overhand left from the rafters that the sharp-shooting Texan loaded up on and scored with perfectly. The shot lifted Edwards up off his feet and put him on the canvas as the round expired. Edwards somehow got up and made it to his corner, but his team decided that was sufficient and waved off the bout, giving Rodriguez the TKO victory and making him a unified champion.
"I am satisfied I got the one period. That's the goal, but I knew I had what it takes to stop him. So that's what I did." The newly minted unified Flyweight champion explained.