Elvis Rodriguez continued his winning streak with a noteworthy seventh-round TKO against former champion Viktor Postol. This marks the second straight fight where Postol was stopped on his feet at this venue.
Since losing a majority decision to Kenneth Sims in 2021, Rodriguez has secured four consecutive victories. He stunned Postol with a right hook in the last moments of the sixth round and once again in the seventh round, which led referee Celestino Ruiz to stop the fight at 23 seconds. At the time of stopping, Rodriguez was leading 59-54 on all three judges’ scorecards.
Trained by Freddie Roach, Rodriguez now holds a record of 15-1-1 with 13 knockouts. Postol’s career record has now dipped to 31-5 (12 KOs) after losing three in a row. Following the match, Postol was taken to the hospital for observation and could not be reached for comment.
“For every fight we always have a plan,” Rodriguez said. “Today, it might have helped a bit that Freddie trained Postol, but every fighter requires a different plan. Things started to escalate in the fifth round. I thought I fractured his nose when I hit him, and then I landed a good shot in the fifth. So, I went for the kill in the sixth. I felt like I had him from the start of the seventh round. I hit him with a hook, and I could tell he was in trouble. And then the referee stopped the fight. I knew we had won. I’m ready for a world title. I’ve worked too hard not to. Thank you.”
Freddie Roach, who was coaching Rodriguez on Saturday had also recently trained Postol. The familiarity between the fighters extended to Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Gym in Los Angeles, where the two often sparred. Rodriguez capitalized on this experience in the third round, hurting Postol with a jab-right combination and causing him to retreat for the rest of the round.
Rodriguez started to throw more powerful punches from the third round, landing a right hook to the top of Postol’s head with roughly 20 seconds left. Rodriguez landed a left-right combo to the body in the fifth round that nearly bent Postol over and caused him to retreat to the end of the round. Rodriguez opened the sixth round with a right uppercut and later stunned Postol with a strong right jab, leading to Postol’s left eye beginning to close and his nose and mouth filling with blood before the fight was stopped.
