Galal Yafai Vs. Francisco Rodriguez Jr. Preview

Galal Yafai faces Francisco Rodriguez Jr. on June 21 as we preview this upcoming fight. 

Yafai puts his WBC Interim Flyweight Title on the line for the first time. He secured the belt after stopping Sunny Edwards in his last fight as the latter announced his retirement. That was the biggest win of his career, as the Olympic Gold Medalist dominated the former IBF Flyweight Champion. Rodriguez’s record stands at 39-6-1, with 27 KOs to his name. He has fallen short at the elite level, losing to Kazuto Ioka and Junto Nakatani in 2022 at super flyweight. He also suffered a loss to Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez. However, he has nothing to lose, knowing a win over Yafai takes him closer to a title shot amid links with Jesse Rodriguez.

Preview

“I’ve had five fights, and I could jump in now with the top boys, but I don’t want to do that and not have the experience. People will say ‘he should be fighting him, him and this guy’, but people say anything, I just have to do what I am doing and get to the top and beat them. I need experience. On my day I can beat the top boys, but I want to give myself the best chance, I don’t want to go in there and fight them too soon and just be too short. But saying that, I’m still good enough to beat them,” Yafai said 

“He’s going to be around for a long time. Galal against Bam in a couple of years is going to be absolutely legendary. I don’t really want to see him tread water. “When he’s not threatened by an opponent, he finds it a bit boring. I think you’re going to get the best out of him when he fears and respects the opponent,” Eddie Hearn stated 

Current Card

Galal Yafai vs. Francisco Rodriguez Jr.; WBC interim flyweight title

Shabaz Masoud vs. Peter McGrail; junior featherweight

Conah Walker vs. Liam Taylor; Brtitish welterweight title

Hamza Uddin vs. Johsua Vallejo; flyweight

Ibraheem Sulaimaan vs. TBA; junior lightweight

Aaron Bowen vs. TBA; middleweight