Yafai's World Title Dream Derailed by Relentless Rodriguez Jr.

Britain's Olympic gold medallist Galal Yafai saw his world championship ambitions suffer a major blow on home soil in Birmingham, enduring a punishing unanimous decision loss to Mexico's aggressive Francisco Rodriguez Jr.

Fighting at the BP Pulse Live Arena, the 32-year-old Yafai (now 9-1) was visibly troubled from the outset by Rodriguez Jr.'s relentless pressure and high-volume punching. Despite moments of success and admirable resilience, Yafai absorbed significant punishment throughout the high-tempo contest.

The Mexican challenger landed sharply early, buckling Yafai's legs in the first round and maintaining dominance. Yafai sustained a cut above his left eye in the fourth, hindering his efforts. Though a seventh-round knockdown was controversially ruled a slip, Rodriguez Jr. clearly hurt Yafai multiple times, notably in the ninth. The conclusive moment came in the final round when a clean left-right combination dropped Yafai. Though he beat the count, he appeared deflated as the fight concluded.

Scores of 119-108, 119-108, and 118-109 reflected Rodriguez Jr.'s dominance. With this victory, the former unified strawweight champion (40-7) captured the WBC interim flyweight title and derailed Yafai's path to a full world title shot against Kenshiro Teraji.

"[Rodriguez] was relentless tonight. Yafai couldn't have got into a worse start but I'm so proud of him," stated Yafai's promoter, Eddie Hearn. "He failed on the hurdle to elite level and that's sometimes what happens. He'd only had nine fights."

Undercard Highlights

Earlier, super-bantamweight Tiah Mai Ayton, dubbed "the new Katie Taylor" by Hearn, made a ferocious professional debut, stopping Hungary's Sara Orszagi in the third round.

Manchester Olympian Pat Brown secured his second pro win with a brutal second-round body shot stoppage of Ivan Duka. Additionally, Peter McGrail earned a majority decision over Ionut Baluta, and Conah Walker successfully defended his British welterweight title via seventh-round stoppage against Liam Taylor.