WATERFRONT RING WAR: FAJARDO SHOCKS RODRIGUEZ WITH A DRAW
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 16 Nov 2014
CEBU ? The fight was widely predicted to be a mismatch. Francisco Rodriguez of Mexico, who recently unified the WBO and IBF world minimumweight world titles, was moving up in weight and matched up against Jomar Fajardo, an unknown Filipino who lost by TKO in his last fight.
Rodriguez came into this fight with a record of 16-2,11KO?s and publicly challenged reigning WBO jr.flyweight champion Donnie ?Ahas? Nietes. He was obviously looking past Fajardo who had a record of 14W-5L-1D, 7KO?s, and had no belt of value except for the one holding up his pants.
Fajardo, who hails from the Aljoe Jaro boxing stable of Binangonan, Rizal, was also a substitute for another Cebu boxer, Virgilio Silvano.
Fajardo immediately showed the Cebu fight fans why he wears the ring moniker ?Wallopman?. He gave Rodriguez all he could handle in the early going in the first two rounds and stunned him with his looping right hands.
Rodriguez (R) connects against Fajardo.
Rodriguez tried a trick in the third by briefly switching to southpaw. But it didn?t matter to Fajardo. The Filipino was hit by numerous head and body shots but came back for more.
Fajardo then came up with the best punch he threw in his life ? a hard right that bloodied Rodriguez? nose. With blood continuing to pour from the Mexican?s nose and mouth, Referee Tony Pesons brought Rodriguez to the attention of ring physician Dr.Jose Unabia. Rodriguez was allowed to continue but Fajardo?s cornermen and the extremely loud fans wondered if the Mexican?s nose may have been broken.
With the crowd yelling for Fajardo to target the nose, he threw everything at Rodriguez, who was stunned by the toughness of his opponent.
Rodriguez continued to land the more accurate punches, he had the edge in punches landed, but Fajardo?s heart kept him going. There were moments past the halfway mark when Fajardo looked spent with the body punches taking their toll but he got his second wind and continued to catch the Mexican with his swinging right. Rodriguez was breathing through his mouth while Fajardo?s left eye was swollen going into the last two rounds. He tried to match Rodriguez punch for punch and came close to pulling an upset.
The scores ? Edwin Barrientos ? 95-95, Edgar Olalo ? 98-92 (Rodriguez) and Arnel Pasion 96-94 (Fajardo).
The split draw ?exposed? the 21 year old Rodriguez, who was 113 lbs during the weigh-in; Fajardo was at 112lbs. How the Mexican will fare at the top level at 108 remains to be seen. Rodriguez did lose when he fought as a flyweight to Nicaragua?s Roman Gonzalez.
An interesting fact is that the 22 year old Fajardo comes from the same gym that produced Sonny Boy Jaro.
NEW BLOOD:
Buried underneath the TKO victory of Donnie Nietes over Carlos Velarde of Mexico are three four round boxers who had an impressive and fast start in the preliminary bouts of PINOY PRIDE 28.
Gerard Suico used a vicious body shot to knock out Fritz Cabilla in 1:46 of the first round. Virgel Vitor also knocked out Jovane Abejero in the opening round (Time ? 2:23) while Polid Banal stopped Ritchen Rosales by TKO at 1:32 of the first canto.
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