Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez has ruled out moving up to 122 to challenge Naoya Inoue for his undisputed super bantamweight championship following his dethroning of WBC super flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada last Saturday night.
Rodriguez Prioritizes Unification at 115 lbs
When asked after his seventh-round knockout victory over the Estrada (44-4, 28 KOs) about his interest in facing the unbeaten Inoue next, ‘Bam’ Rodriguez (20-0, 13 KOs) said his focus is on unifying the 115-lb division. Bam wants the July 7th unification fight winner between IBF super flyweight champion Fernando Martinez and WBA champion Kazuto Ioka.
Rodriguez wouldn’t be ready to move up to 122 to take on the experienced, hard-hitting Naoya Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs), who has deadly accuracy, speed, and power.
Given Inoue’s age, 31, it’s unlikely that Bam Rodriguez will get a chance to fight him before he retires. It will take Bam too long to move up because he wants to unify all the belts at 115 lb, which may take or two.
If Jesse Rodriguez is successful, he’ll want to move to 118 first, and he would need to face WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani. He could lose to the big puncher.
Weight Disparity and Inoue’s Trajectory
“I know people want that, but let’s be real, right now, it’s a fantasy fight. I’ve got to work my way up,” said Bam Rodriguez to the media last Saturday night about his interest in fighting Naoya Inoue.
“He’s at 122 lbs right now; I’m at 115 lbs. I’ve got business to handle at this weight class. I want the winner of Kazuto Ioka vs. Fernando Martinez,” said Rodriguez.
Naoya Inoue plans to move up to 126 to campaign at featherweight next year. So, it doesn’t seem realistic for Bam ever to fight him.
The only way a fight between them could happen is if Rodriguez were ambitious and brave enough to move up to 122 immediately and beat one of the top contenders to create pressure on the Japanese star. Rodriguez will not do that because he’s playing it carefully with his career.
Defensive Vulnerabilities
One big problem is that Bam is too easy to hit, as we saw with the shots that the past-his-best 34-year-old Estrada was hitting him with in the fight. When Estrada let his hands go, he gave Bam Rodriguez problems.
It was only when Estrada stopped punching for extended periods that Bam Rodriguez could get his shots off and dominate the older fighter. Rodriguez’s performance showed the same weaknesses in his game that had been there the last time he fought at 115 in September 2022 against Israel Gonzalez.
Bam got hit a lot in that fight and suffered a jaw injury in a close contest. After that performance, Rodriguez returned to 112 and did well, beating Cristian Gonzalez and Sunny Edwards before returning to the 115-lb division last Saturday night for his fight against Estrada.
With Rodriguez’s victory over Estrada, he now holds the WBC super flyweight title, and he’s got the popularity to lure the other champions in the weight class to face him in a unification.
