The fighters threw bombs at the opening bell. Sometimes ?Top Dog? had the upper hand. Other times ?La Bomba? landed with precision?
Saturday night at the StubHub Center in Carson, California, Thomas ?Top Dog? Williams Jr. (20-1, 14 KOs), the southpaw from Ft. Washington, Maryland, crushed rugged Edwin ?La Bomba? Rodriguez (28-2, 19 KOs), from Worcester, Massachusetts, by way of Moca, Dominican Republic, knocking him out a 2:29 of round two.
Fighting out of the red corner in black trunks with orange trim, Williams put his youth, southpaw style, and advantages in height and reach to good use.
Rodriguez, fighting out of the blue corner in red, white and blue trunks, used his never-say-die ethos and brought the fight to the Marylander.
The fighters threw bombs at the opening bell. Sometimes ?Top Dog? had the upper hand. Other times ?La Bomba? landed with precision. Rodriguez was hurt in round one but weathered the storm to come on in the second. That rally was short-lived. After landing a barrage of right hands, Williams caught Rodriguez with a booming left hook and down he went. ?La Bomba? beat the count but was in no shape to continue.
Williams was ecstatic and rightfully so.
?I told you what was going to happen,? he said, ?that he was going be open for everything and he was. I countered him and hurt him with every punch. I could see his punches like it was slow motion.
?I want the title, absolutely I want to fight Adonis Stevenson next, he?s the champ and I want his belt.?
Rodriguez was dejected at the loss.
?I didn?t fight the fight I was supposed to. I was supposed to go in there and box and I didn?t do it. I should have taken my time. I thought I could have continued. I didn?t know what the referee saw, but I could have kept going.?
We couldn?t agree less.
