WBC super flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada and Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez are fighting on June 29th in Arizona. The fight has been talked about for a while, and now the two are reportedly close to a deal.
Estrada vs. Rodriguez is a good money-level fight. However, there are better ones for Bam against younger fighters that would be more interesting to watch. Juan Francisco looks old and past it at 33. He’s no longer active and hasn’t looked good in many years.
Passing of the Baton or Controversial Ending?
This one will be the passing of the baton from Estrada to Bam unless we have a controversial decision like Juan Franciso’s second fight against Roman Gonzalez.
RingTV reports that Rodriguez (19-0, 12 KOs), who recently defeated IBF flyweight champion Sunny Edwards by a ninth-round stoppage last December, will be moving up in weight to 115 to challenge the 33-year-old Juan Francisco Estrada (44-3, 28 KOs) for his WBC title.
Estrada hasn’t fought in two years since his win over Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez in their 2022 trilogy match. It’s unclear what Estrada has left in the tank at this point in his long professional career.
Most boxing fans who saw Estrada’s second fight with Gonzalez in 2021 had him losing that fight and being given a gift decision. This writer had Roman winning 10-2. Estrada looked shot in that fight. In Juan Francisco’s match after that, he won a questionable decision over Argi Cortes in September 2022.
Estrada did win his last fight against Chocolatito without controversy, but that was more of a case of Roman looking like he’d gotten old since their previous match in 2021.
The Estrada Factor
Fans would be more interested in seeing Bam Rodriguez finish unifying the 112-lb division against WBC champion Julio Cesar Martinez and WBA champ Seigo Yuri Akui. Unlike Juan Estrada, those guys are young, active, and still in the prime of their careers, which will make it more interesting to watch.
With Estrada, he’s so popular that it could be difficult for Bam Rodriguez to win without scoring a knockout. When you get a fighter as popular as Juan Francisco, it can be a problem trying to beat them by a decision, as we saw with his second fight with Roman and his match against Cortes.
The last thing Bam needs is to be on the receiving end of a controversial decision and watch his popularity drop.
