Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez and Sunny Edwards will meet in a highly-anticipated flyweight title unification Saturday night on DAZN, plus Showtime bows out of the boxing world with David Morrell Jr headlining against Sena Agbeko, and MORE!
Who wins this weekend’s fights?
We’ve got our picks in!
Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs Sunny Edwards
Scott Christ (100-39)
Without getting so deep in the weeds I seem like I’m “doing a bit”:
- I legitimately think Edwards is going to fluster Rodriguez, whose last couple performances have left some questions about how high his level currently is. Edwards’ boxing skills and ability to annoy opponents is no joke. He can’t punch, but he can box, he wouldn’t be here otherwise. He’s faced good opponents and beaten them fair and square.
- I kinda have to pick my boy Sunny, don’t I?
So I’m rolling with Sunny. I think it’s closer to legit 50/50 than some do. Rodriguez is good. Edwards is good. Rodriguez is more well-rounded, perhaps, but it will come down to whether he can make Sunny fight against Sunny’s nature enough. Edwards UD-12
Wil Esco (109-30)
No need to overthink this one too much, I think. Here we have a boxer who can punch going against a boxer who can’t. Perhaps if Sunny Edwards were a demonstrably better boxer than Rodriguez then maybe he could outduel him on points, but I think Bam is at least as skilled and will inflict more damage throughout. And even if Bam doesn’t get to inflict as much as he might otherwise hope due to Edwards’ slippery nature, he’ll still impress the judges by being the one who’s bringing the fight. Rodriguez UD-12
John Hansen (98-41)
Sunny Edwards is exceptionally crafty and smart, but even his most devoted partisans (Scott) will tell you that the guy is pretty close to the bottom end of the scale for punching power among top tier pros. His success as a boxer without being a puncher is a testament to his great talent, and even a thumping hitter like Julio Cesar Martinez, assuming he could find and hire a competent dietician and travel agent, would be too crude to really challenge a dialed-in Sunny Edwards.
You need a certain level of skill and ability to hang with Sunny and allow a power advantage to matter, and I think Bam Rodriguez has it. I wish we’d seen him cut off the ring a little better against Cristian Gonzalez, and that’s something he’d better have worked on preparing for this fight. But, Rodriguez was chasing Gonzalez through a busted jaw for half the night, and won it wide anyway. Bam hasn’t proven he can get his work done against a boxer like Sunny before, but he also couldn’t have proven it before now. There’s nobody in the weight class that’s even near Sunny’s level. We won’t know if Rodriguez can do it until the bell rings, but I believe in him. Rodriguez UD-12
Patrick Stumberg (105-34)
I have every reason in the world to pull for Rodriguez. He’s more fun to watch, he’s got a better story behind him. Hell, I’m even originally from the same 210 area code and see his face on insurance billboards every time I go visit my family.
But, while you could throw any of Matt Berry’s insults from What We Do in the Shadows at Edwards and probably hit the mark, Rodriguez’s last fight doesn’t give me a lot of hope. “Bam” looked decidedly more mortal when forced to chase his opponent down instead of circling them like a malicious little moon, and while Edwards may not have Gonzalez’s height, he’s far more defensively savvy and educated with his footwork. Getting away largely unscathed after 36 minutes with a brutal hunter-killer like Felix Alvarado is no mean feat, especially when he was still getting in some decent licks.
There’s going to come a point, probably within the next year or two, where Rodriguez evolves past the point where Edwards can bullfight him. I’m just not convinced eight months was enough to take him from where he was against Gonzalez to where he can handle the division’s biggest pain in the ass. He’ll get a few rounds when Edwards gets too stationary, as Alvarado did, but I expect Sunny to stick-and-move to a decision much closer on the scorecards than in reality. Edwards MD-12
Quick Picks!
David Morrell Jr vs Sena Agbeko
- Scott: Morrell TKO-3
- Wil: Morrell TKO-4
- John: Morrell TKO-5
- Patrick: Morrell TKO-4
Chris Colbert vs Jose Valenzuela 2
- Scott: Colbert UD-12
- Wil: Colbert UD-12
- John: Valenzuela TKO-8
- Patrick: Colbert UD-12
Shadasia Green vs Franchon Crews-Dezurn
- Scott: Crews-Dezurn MD-10
- Wil: Green UD-10
- John: Crews-Dezurn UD-10
- Patrick: Green UD-10