Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez says he will live up to the hype and prove he’s ready to take over the Super-Flyweight division when he comes home to San Antonio and defends his WBC World title against Srisaket Sor Rungvisai at the Tech Port Arena on Saturday night, live worldwide on DAZN.
Rodriguez (15-0 10 KOs) won the title in stunning fashion, taking on Carlos Cuadras at just six days’ notice and flooring the former ruler in the third round with a devastating upper cut en-route to a wide points win.
“A lot of people have eyes on me now and they are looking at me to take over the division,” said Rodriguez. “I’ve seen a lot on social media saying I am the new Choccy and that’s a lot of motivation and I want to live up to the hype.
“Rungvisai has been in with the best and beating him would really boost my confidence and skyrocket my career. I feel a lot stronger than I did against Cuadras. That wasn’t a fluke, I want to show I am the real deal.
“It’s possibly the toughest test you could face in a first defense of my title but like with the Cuadras fight, I had no hesitation because I am here to takeover.
“I want to see how the fight goes. We do have plans to go down to 112lbs and win a World title there, and hopefully unify and become undisputed, and then come back to 115lbs.
“There’s so many good fighters, I’d love to fight Estrada and Chocolatito and then at 112lbs there’s Julio Cesar Martinez, Sunny Edwards, Junto Nakatani; there’s so many great names and I would love to fight them all.”
I like Rodriguez and if he can, at 22 years old (or at any age), get back to back wins over Cuadras and SSR, that’s a great year for him. I thought he’d be too small for the big punchers at 115, SSR being one of them and hopefully he tightened things up because Cuadras hit him with some stuff, especially uppercuts, that I don’t know if he can take in this fight. But full credit to him for taking on this level at his age and I would LOVE to see him go back down and fight Martinez or Nakatani at 112. I think he’s about to be a star.
Spot on! Great points/analysis
I never heard your the new Choccy. Lmao
Well do it.
That’s a fighter that is on the verge of greatness if he stays focused..
Sor Rungvisai is highly motivated and with the nation of Thailand behind him and the WBC belt as the prize he will be a force to be reckoned with. I expect his heavy punches wil be too much for the very game but smaller Rodriquez.
If Bam beats this man, than he is totally legit!! Big test ahead of him.
I’d like to see go to 108lbs and fight Kyoguchi as he was fighting close to that weight before the Cuadras fight and had weighed in below the 108lbs limit before. He could win belts in the 108lbs division before fighting the 112lb champs and he’d be a three division champ.