Juan Francisco Estrada’s loss earlier this year to Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez will wind up being the final fight at 115 pounds for the former lineal junior bantamweight champion.
Estrada will be heading three pounds north, a member of his camp confirmed during a Thursday meeting of the WBO’s ratings committee at the sanctioning body’s convention in Puerto Rico.
“Juan Francisco Estrada is officially moving up to 118,” the camp member said.
Newly elected WBO president Gustavo Olivieri then asked him where Team Estrada wanted their fighter ranked.
“Within the top five would be amazing,” came the answer. “He wants big fights right away. He doesn’t really want a tune-up. It will be a big fight. We’re looking at the first quarter of 2025.”
If the WBO decides to rank Estrada at 118, it would be following the lead of the WBC, which has installed him in the No. 1 spot even though Estrada is coming off a loss and hasn’t fought in the division since 2016.
The 34-year-old from Hermosillo, Mexico, was knocked out on a Rodriguez body shot in the seventh round of their June fight. That ended a championship run that began when “El Gallo” outpointed Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in their April 2019 rematch. Estrada made five successful defenses as lineal champ, including another rematch victory — this one over Carlos Cuadras — and decision wins in the final two matches of his trilogy with Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez. Along the way, Estrada also earned the WBA and WBO world titles.
This was Estrada’s second division as a titleholder. He previously unified a pair of belts at 112.
The WBC and WBO titleholders at bantamweight are Junto Nakatani and Yoshiki Takei, respectively.
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