'The Truth' hurts as 'Bam' Rodriguez stops brave Cafu in unification bout
'The Truth' Cafu ceded the WBO junior-bantamweight crown he had won in his last outing to the 25-year-old WBC champion, widely rated as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world who had seen far more action at this level.
Rodriguez had already won a unification title at flyweight.
Cafu, suffering the first defeat of his career, dropped to 11 wins, one loss and three draws while Rodriguez improved to 22-0 with 15 stoppages.
Rodriguez was the busier of the two boxers, fighting with relentless energy and unleashing punches in endless combinations as he controlled large swathes of the fight.
Cafu, by comparison, fought in spurts, winning skirmishes and owning moments. He was unable to match his opponent blow for blow, sometimes relying too heavily on single punches, although he found his target time and again, marking his opponent.
The statistics showed that Rodriguez threw 610 punches and landed 218 of them, compared to Cafu's 468 thrown and 144 landed.
The South African spent the entire time fighting off the ropes, trying to counter the pressure-fighter, a southpaw with a vicious left hand.
The furthest Cafu ventured towards the centre of the ring was for the final instructions just before the start of the contest.
After that he slid his way along the ropes. On the one occasion that he turned Rodriguez in the corner in the seventh round, Cafu simply retreated to the ropes again, absorbing more punishment than he dished out.
He landed some good shots to the head and the body, occasionally forcing Rodriguez to take a step back, but he never looked in control of the fight.
The sixth round was probably Cafu's best, but in the corner after the ninth, trainer Colin Nathan threatened to end it if the boxer didn't do more.
In the 10th Rodriguez rocked Cafu with a right hand, but he was unable to drop his wounded opponent as they got tied up in a messy clinch, with both going down.
The referee was prepared to let it continue but Nathan had seen enough, throwing in the towel to give his charge a reprieve from further punishment and allowing him to fight another day.
Rodriguez afterwards rated the bout as his toughest to date. 'All credit goes to Cafu, he's a tough opponent. He was a lot tougher than I thought he was going to be, but we got the job done.'
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