Canada picked up their second win of the tournament, a 3-2 victory over Puerto Rico. It was actually Puerto Rico that jumped out to an early lead, but the Jays drew two walks with the bases loaded to take the lead, then added an insurance run in the following inning.
Octagon newcomer Imanol Rodriguez earned a $100,000 "Performance of the Night" bonus for his stoppage of Kevin Borjas in a flyweight tilt. Rodriguez survived being floored twice in the opening stanza before dropping his foe with an overhand right near the fence in Round 2. A barrage of follow-up shots sealed his victory at the 4:21 mark of the period.
Two Fridays ago, the squad signed a statement saying they couldn't carry on like this. And last Friday, the fans who've been through it all before decided they too would walk away. Yet 48 hours later, after another week that proved them right, resisting everything, there they were still, celebrating another implausible success, another day when they had stuck it to The Man.
"I don't really pay attention too much to it," Jones said, laughing. "Kyle came up to me and he was pissed about it. He's like, 'Dude, I can't believe they moved us to underdogs again,' or like more [of underdogs] or whatever. And I'm like, 'I don't know what that means really, [but] like, yeah, let's go kill them.' He was pissed about it. I was like, 'Yeah, I'm pissed, too.'"
"To be honest, if you told me I would be in the final at Wimbledon, I would not believe you. At least not this soon, because I mean, it's been a year turnaround since coming back and to be in this spot, I mean, it's not easy."
