Galal Yafai suffers shock loss to Francisco Rodriguez Jr

Galal Yafai’s world title dreams lies in tatters after the 2020 Olympic gold medallist suffered his first professional defeat last night in Birmingham.

Yafai faced off against Francisco Rodriguez Jr in the first defence of his WBC Interim flyweight title, but found the Mexican too hot to handle. After 12 rounds of action, Rodriguez was a deserving winner earning a wide decision on all three scorecards – 119-108 (twice) and 118-109.

Saturday night’s main event at the bp pulse LIVE Arena was effectively the final stop for Yafai, before going on to challenge Japanese legend Kenshiro Teraji for the full WBC title.

Afterwards Boxing News caught up with the winner who had nothing but praise for Yafai’s toughness after 12 gruelling rounds.

“I kept going at him and I felt as though he was going down, but he didn’t,” Rodriguez said. “I kept going and I think I got him twice or three times but he still wouldn’t go. He’s a very tough guy.”

Yafai appeared to be hurt in the opening round following a short left hand from Rodriguez. To his credit, the Birmingham boxer stayed on his feet but felt the full force of Rodriguez’s shots throughout the contest, which culminated in Yafai being dropped in the final round.

“I saw him hurt after the first round, but I’ve carried on and I’ve stuck to it even though I got cut. I still carried on with my heart,” Rodriguez said.

“I thought he was going to go down in the 12th round but he stayed very strong. He was very tough.”

Rodriguez can now look forward to his first world title shot since losing to Kazuto Ioka on points for the WBO flyweight title in Japan four years ago. Rodriguez, a former unified minimumweight world champion, had his say on facing Teraji for the WBC flyweight title.

“I’m ready. I really hope I get that fight. I’m waiting for the contract to come my way and I’m ready to go.”

Yafai’s promoter Eddie Hearn expressed his disappointment at the defeat and felt that Yafai didn’t seem himself.

“Disappointing that Galal came up short at world level,”

“I don’t think he looked quite right. It was a nightmare start. He rushed to the ring and the first 20 seconds were probably the worst start you could ever have. I don’t think he ever fully recovered after that. I thought he showed unbelievable toughness but toughness wasn’t good enough," Hearn continued.

"And you can’t fight that type of fight against someone like Rodriguez. I think after six rounds they both had thrown well over 1,000 punches and he was a guy that wasn’t going to be denied tonight.”

Yafai, 32, started the fight as the odds-on favourite but the consensus was that his fellow 32-year-old was a potential banana skin of an opponent.

“It’s disappointing because I think Galal Yafai is that guy that can fight at elite level and Rodriguez isn’t actually an elite guy,” Hearn commented. “He’s a world-class fighter that falls short at that level and we expected Galal to overcome him but Rodriguez was too much for him."