Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez defended his WBC junior bantamweight title with a third-round stoppage of Pedro Guevara last night at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Now, the 24-year-old champ is looking to unify the division – or, if those opportunities don’t come – he may consider moving up in weight.
“I would love the unifications,” Rodriguez, 21-0 (14 KOs), said in the post-fight press conference. “But if the fights don’t happen, a match with ‘Chocolatito’ [Roman Gonzalez] makes sense as well.”
Roman Gonzalez, the former four-division titleholder, is now campaigning at bantamweight following his return earlier this year.
“Just like I said, any unification that comes, if not, I can’t stay at 115lbs forever,” Rodriguez said. “I’m only growing, so I’ll move up if they don’t come.”
The bout marked Rodriguez’s third consecutive stoppage victory, solidifying his swift ascent since his breakout win over Carlos Cuadras on February 5, 2022.
Guevara, 35, from Mexico, drops to 42-5-1 (22 KOs) following last night’s defeat, which comes after his career-best win over Andrew Moloney in May.
Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Rodriguez now trains in Riverside, California, under the guidance of Robert Garcia. His focus, he emphasized, is on unifying the division. A bout that caught his interest is the New Year’s Eve rematch between Fernando Martinez and Kazuto Ioka, following Martinez’s earlier victory. Ioka, notably, defeated Rodriguez’s brother, Joshua Franco, leading to Franco’s retirement.
“Yeah, I would love that fight,” Rodriguez said. “If it were up to me, it would have happened next, but I waited so long to see if [Juan Francisco] Estrada would rematch me, and that just slipped away. So now we wait again.”
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