Francisco Rodriguez Jr., a veteran, upset Galal Yafai in Birmingham, England, and did it in style. He won the interim WBC flyweight title by a unanimous, wide decision. Rodriguez prevailed by scores of 118-109, 119-108, and 119-108; no judge, for some reason, thought it was closer than the rest of the world or anything. In terms of Yafai's heart and toughness, this was a completely one-sided battle, and the scores showed it. Rodriguez (40-6-1, 27 KO) had lost a number of high-profile bouts overseas, but it wasn't for lack of effort. He simply outclassed the 32-year-old Yafai (9-1, 7 KO) in this fight, who was attempting to advance to a real world title bout following his 2021 Olympic gold victory in Tokyo. Yafai took what could have been a career-ending beating in this fight, so no one should doubt his heart or his resolve. He will need to consider his options moving forward. Yafai has never fit the mold of a "Olympic gold medalist" despite his Olympic background because, to put it mildly, he is more of a fighter than a boxer and isn't always defensively responsible. Rodriguez put that to the test right away by letting his hands fly while applying pressure to Yafai, and despite his best efforts, Yafai was never able to truly enter the fight. In the final and twelfth round, he lost once. We thought that steamrolling him tonight was the only way to win. My team sent me out to do that," Rodriguez stated. I had to put in twice as much effort because I was up against an unbeaten fighter and rising star. And he was home. We completed the task even though I was swimming against the flow. Rodriguez remarked of Yafai, "I think he did really well to withstand shots." However, he was also astute. I was about to knock him out, but he managed to hold on to me when he needed to. I would have knocked him out if he hadn't done that and clinched so hard. With the victory, Rodriguez, 32, may be able to travel to Japan and challenge Kenshiro Teraji, the unified WBC and WBA flyweight champion, later this year. In his previous two trips to Japan, Rodriguez lost to Junto Nakatani and Kazuto Ioka. "I would be very excited about that. I would like you to call me, Teraji. After your fight in July, we have a date set. Let's finish it," he said. On July 30, Teraji will play Ricardo Sandoval in Yokohama.