Juan Francis Estrada has chosen not to use his rematch clause for a second fight against Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez. Instead, the former two-division world champion Juan Estrada (44-4, 28 KOs) will move up to 118 [bantamweight] in search of new opportunities for his career.
Salvador Rodriguez is reporting on X that the 34-year-old Estrada is moving up to bantamweight next and won’t be taking the rematch to try and avenge his seventh-round knockout loss to Bam Rodriguez (20-0, 13 KOs) from earlier this year on June 29th in Phoenix, Arizona.
It’s a wise move by Estrada because he looked overmatched against Bam Rodriguez, except the knockdown he scored. If Estrada stayed at 115 for a rematch, it would likely end the same way, with Bam knocking him out again and hurting his marketability. Juan Estrada has had a long 16-year career, and the three fights against Roman Gonzalez have taken a lot out of him.
Estrada lost his WBC super flyweight title in his defeat against Bam, but it would have been pointless for him to exercise his rematch clause because he doesn’t have the size or the youth to win. You can’t blame that loss for Estrada on his struggles to make the 115-lb weight. Age, inactivity, and ring wear had caught up to him.
Going into that fight, Estrada had been out of the ring for nearly two years and had fought poorly in his previous fights against Roman ‘Choclatito’ Gonzalez and Argi Cortes.
With Estrada choosing not to use the rematch clause, this frees Bam Rodriguez up to focus on fighting one of the other champions at 115, such as IBF/WBA Fernando Rodriguez or WBO champion Kosei Tanaka.
Juan Estrada could make good money fighting WBC 118-lb champion Junto Nakatani or WBA champion Takuma Inoue. However, those two could face each other next in a unification. Naoya Inoue recently said that Nakatani needs to fight his brother, Takuma, before he’ll entertain the idea of fighting him at 122.
Last Updated on 09/12/2024
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