The pound-for-pound top three in the sport seems set as Oleksandr Usyk, Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue, although if there were any fighter to penetrate that trio it would likely be rising super-flyweight sensation, Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez. Yet, in spite of his budding superstar potential, it has now been confirmed that the WBC super-flyweight champion will next appear on an undercard.
‘Bam’ announced himself onto the world stage when he defeated Carlos Cuadras on just six days’ notice to claim the WBC 115lb crown aged just 22-years-old but since then he has proved that his victory was no fluke. Rodriguez trumped both Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Israel Gonzalez before dropping down to flyweight and becoming a two-division world champion by defeating Christian Gonzalez Hernandez for the WBO strap.
However, it was last December where the Texan established himself as a threat to the pound-for-pound throne, stopping previously undefeated Briton Sunny Edwards in a title unification that many had deemed as a 50/50 affair during the build-up.
This year, success has continued for Rodriguez, and he showed even further improvement as he dominated and halted the legendary Juan Francisco Estrada to reclaim his WBC super-flyweight title – a win that convinced promoter Eddie Hearn that the now 24-year-old is right amongst the cream of the crop, as per World Boxing News.
“The problem with the lower weight classes is they often don’t get the respect of the higher ones. For me, Jesse should be mentioned with Terence Crawford, Inoue, Usyk. He’s gone through Cuadras, gone through Rungvisai, stopped Edwards, KO’d Estrada. He’s already on the pound-for-pound list, but I think he is top five pound-for-pound now. He’s 24 years old, he has another four or five years of his prime, and we’re honoured to represent him.
“You saw the crowd in there, we’re in Phoenix, not in San Antonio, and as many Mexicans as there were in there, Bam had huge support and he’s a real star. The rematch is there, there’s opportunities in Japan, there’s opportunities to go back to San Antonio and also to come back to Phoenix. The future is bright, he wants to try unify the division, El Gallo has the option to rematch and we’ll see how that plays out.”
Yet, despite those plaudits from Hearn, Rodriguez will fight on an undercard for his second outing of the year, as he faces WBC interim flyweight champion Pedro Guevara, as confirmed on the latter’s Instagram.
The bout is expected to be the co-main event on a Jaron Ennis undercard on November 9th in Philadelphia, assumably when ‘Boots’ defends his IBF welterweight title in a rematch against Karen Chukhadzhian. Although, Hearn failed to win the purse bid for that contest and will therefore need to agree a deal with Chukhadzhian’s team to stage the event in Ennis’ hometown, unless the 147lb poster boy is planning to vacate the belt and move up to super-welterweight to face an alternate opponent on that date.
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