PHOENIX – Don’t try to lump an entire generation into the same personality type. Yes, some are obsessed with self-promotion, trash talk and outlandish statements.
Others – particularly the unbeaten two-division champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez – are content to keep to themselves, to labor in near anonymity before the bright lights of the stage find them.
In a brief sampling of social media distraction this week, Rodriguez has retweeted four posts on X by his broadcaster DAZN to showcase his Saturday bout in Phoenix against veteran WBC junior bantamweight titleholder Juan Francisco Estrada (44-3, 28 KOs), and sent out only one of his own, announcing simply, “Fight week.”
Meanwhile, the controversial Ryan Garcia, 25, has unleashed a barrage of 35 posts on X from Saturday through Tuesday alone as the scandal over his April 20 no-contest with Devin Haney subsides.
“I just mind my business and do the work I’m supposed to, and that shows on fight night,” Rodriguez, 24, told BoxingScene last week as he capped the final training session of his nearly two-month camp.
“I don’t have to go on social media and make a [reel] or whatever they do on there. I just like to work my ass off and show it on fight night.”
Watch out for the quiet ones.
To prepare for the likely future Hall of Famer Estrada, 34, Rodriguez’s trainer, Robert Garcia, summoned Nicaragua’s legendary four-division champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez to their Riverside, California, compound to spar eight-round sessions steadily for several weeks.
Predictably, perhaps, the conversation between the fighters was muted.
Rodriguez said he learned all he could possibly hope for from the toe-to-toe combat with Gonzalez (51-4, 41 KOs).
Gonzalez engaged Estrada in three epic battles – the first being when Rodriguez was just 12, and the most recent being a December 2022 majority decision win by Estrada that Rodriguez watched from ringside in Glendale, Arizona.
“Everyone says they had the best camp ever,” Rodriguez said, “but I sparred with ‘Chocolatito’ – he’s been in there with Estrada three times, so no one knows Estrada better than Chocolatito. To gain that knowledge from him makes me that much of a better fighter, so coming into this fight I’m more ready than ever.”
The most memorable verbal exchange between the pair?
“Thanks for the sparring,” Rodriguez said to Gonzalez.
“It was top-notch,” Rodriguez explained in last week’s interview, “the best I could’ve got.”
In that final workout, with Gonzalez gone, Rodriguez put himself through a timed 30-round session of mittwork, heavy-bag punching and the old-school art of shadowboxing.
During the mittwork, he donned a black, heavy cotton T-shirt commemorating the 1999 Mike Tyson-Francois Botha heavyweight fight, leaving the session wringing wet with sweat as he tossed off the shirt and further eased his cut toward Friday’s weigh-in in scorching Phoenix.
Rodriguez, the younger brother of former WBA junior bantamweight champion Joshua Franco, said his devotion to the sport was lifted by success in the ring as a 13-year-old amateur, and his embrace of the demanding fundamentals of training were on full display during last week’s session.
The leg strength and footwork that allowed him to knock off two of the other veteran “four kings” of the division, Carlos Cuadras and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, showed in the mittwork, as Rodriguez turned and shifted with such ease and grace to deliver his powerful flurries.
The damage of those blows did in England’s Sunny Edwards in their December flyweight unification in Arizona, as Edwards didn’t answer the bell for the 10th round.
“Going into a fight, I always see my hand raised – in a humble way. It’s not arrogance or cocky,” Rodriguez said. “I’m just that confident. I know Estrada will come better than ever, but I know I work my ass off in camp, and it’s just a matter of time before reality plays out.”
In the shadowboxing session, Rodriguez continued keeping his thunderous legs active, maneuvering so quickly with attention on his opponent’s openings that the difficulty of matching the effort became obvious.
No one else in Garcia’s gym even observed the solitary session, but it left an obvious question: How will the 34-year-old Estrada keep up with this 24-year-old dynamo?
“My youth,” is a critical advantage, Rodriguez said. “There’s a 10-year gap in my advantage.
“He’s been in a lot of wars. He’s not as fresh as he was at my age. I haven’t taken the punches he has. So I’ll be the fresher fighter, and that will play out in the later rounds, I believe.”
This is where keeping the braggadocious behavior in check serves Rodriguez well.
“[Estrada] is a legend. He’s been in there with the best of the best,” Rodriguez said. “He has a lot of experience, a great record. All things I respect. I’m expecting the best Estrada – whether he’s the Estrada of back then or Estrada now.
“I was there live when he fought ‘Chocolatito.’ He’s a great fighter. That fight could’ve gone either way. Chocolatito started a little slow but picked up toward the end and made it a close fight. Both are great fighters. So to share the ring with both of them for this fight is just such an honor.”
Taking the time to stay off his phone and develop his sophisticated footwork has created “my best attribute,” Rodriguez said. “Especially in the lower weight classes, they don’t have the footwork I have. That’s a huge advantage.”
As he shadowboxed, Rodriguez would pause and glance, expressionless, into the mirror in front of him, the duplicate version being “one hell of an opponent,” a visitor remarked.
Rodriguez roared with laughter. He’s invested so much into creating that fighter, and is proud of who he has become. But when he stares into that mirror, he also sees Estrada looking back.
“I look at myself and picture myself and my opponent on fight night, and visualize the fight,” he said. “I try to think about the fight throughout the day and play out every scenario possible.
“Come fight night, that plays out well, because I don’t go into the ring like a deer in the headlights. I’m ready for whatever.”
In a division loaded with talent, including the veteran four-division champion Kazuto Ioka, who sent his brother Franco into retirement, Rodriguez opted not to address what awaits him in the victory he foresees.
“I’ve done a lot in this sport, but I’m not satisfied,” he said. “There’s still a lot more in the tank, a lot more accomplishments to come. This [Estrada bout] is just one of those goals I’ve planned.”
What most fiercely motivates Rodriguez now is his daughter, Mila, who was born in his hometown of San Antonio two weeks before he needed to leave for training.
“It’s all about her,” Rodriguez said. “Anything that comes out of boxing is for her to live a better life.”
There’ll be plenty of time for daddy-daughter pictures when Rodriguez gets home.
Just don’t expect them to show up on social media.
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