Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez has accomplished a lot in less than three years.
He went immediately from being a flyweight prospect to becoming a junior bantamweight titleholder. He took out two of the “Four Kings” of 115, moved back down to 112 to add another world title and returned three pounds north to defeat the third king – and seized the lineal throne in the process.
In his wake were the likes of Carlos Cuadras, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, Sunny Edwards and Juan Francisco Estrada. Rodriguez, 21-0 (14 KOs), is still only 24 years old, just destroyed a contender in Pedro Guevara in three rounds on Saturday and is eyeing the winner of the upcoming rematch between WBA titleholder Fernando Martinez and Kazuto Ioka.
His promoter, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, doesn’t see Rodriguez losing to anyone at 115. And he believes that the only thing that may defeat Bam will be the day that his eyes grow bigger than his stomach.
“The only thing that’s going to beat Bam is going too far through the divisions,” Hearn said in an interview with The Ariel Helwani Show. “You see that quite a lot.”
The two fights that are on boxing fans’ minds for Rodriguez once he departs 115 are Junto Nakatani (the cream of the crop at 118) and Naoya Inoue (the undisputed champ at junior featherweight).
Hearn didn’t touch on Nakatani in this interview. As for Inoue, while Hearn isn’t saying that the bout would be too much for Rodriguez, he also doesn’t downplay the difficulty of that matchup.
“The Inoue fight is at super bantam [and] is a huge step up against a fantastic pound-for-pound fighter,” Hearn said. “What’s going to happen is Bam wants to try and unify [at 115]. You’ve got the ‘Chocolatito’ fight [former titleholder Roman Gonzalez] out there. And where do the next challenges come from? The next challenge will be to move to bantamweight, try and win a third division world title, and then you’re one division away from Naoya Inoue. If [Inoue] chooses to stay at 122 pounds, that fight becomes a real big reality. And you know Inoue sits at No. 3 in the pound-for-pound. Bam’s five.”
The Ring magazine has Inoue ranked second and Rodriguez, prior to this most recent win, in the seventh slot. The Transnational Boxing Ratings Board has Inoue at No. 2 and Rodriguez at No. 6. BoxingScene has Inoue third and Rodriguez fifth.
“I see him and Inoue right there. I think you’re going to end up over the next couple of years, that’s going to be a ‘1 v 2’ pound-for-pound matchup,” Hearn said. “Bam is a special, special fighter, and I’m so pleased he’s getting the recognition he deserves now.”
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2 and @UnitedBoxingPod. He is the co-host of the United Boxing Podcast. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
Read the full article here
