Luis Rodriguez vs. Yama Bahama (2nd meeting)

Luis Rodriguez 151 lbs beat Yama Bahama 158 lbs by TKO in round 3 of 10

• Date: 1962-05-05
• Location: St. Nicholas Arena, New York, New York, USA
• Referee: Arthur Mercante

"Welterweight contender Luis Rodriguez of Cuba almost clinched a September shot at the welterweight crown Saturday night by scoring a TKO over middleweight Yama Bahama in the 3rd round of their return television fight at St. Nicholas Arena. Bahama was bleeding so profusely from a one-inch gash in the middle of his forehead and from a cut at the corner of his left eye that Dr. Harry Kleiman asked referee Arthur Mercante to stop the scheduled 10 round bout at the end of the 3rd round. And Mercante did. Luis gashed Bahama's forehead with a right-left combination in the 1st round and the blood began to run down into Yama's eye. Bahama kept pawing at his eye the rest of the bout. Yama was cut at the corner of the left eye in the 3rd round by a glancing right. In that session, Rodriguez knocked him back on his heels three times with a left hook, a left-right, and a left hook. In the dressing room Yama said both cuts were caused by punches and that he had not been butted, as some observers thought." -United Press International

• Rodriguez was a substitute for Argentina's Farid Salim.

Post fight comments

• "I don't blame the doctor and referee for stopping the bout." -Yama Bahama, on his facial cuts.

• "I'll see what can be done about pairing Rodriguez and Emile Griffith for a September title fight. Rodriguez deserves the shot after his showing tonight." -Matchmaker Teddy Brenner