They say great things come in small packages, it’s an analogy that could have been written for Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez.
The brilliant 25-year-old from San Antonio, Texas is one of the brightest young stars in the sport – despite standing only 5ft 4ins tall (1.63m) and weighing only 115lbs.
‘Bam’ (21-0 with 14 knockouts) takes the next step on his road towards fistic greatness on Saturday July 19 when he faces unbeaten South African Phumelele Cafu (11-0-3 with 8 wins inside distance) at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. The showdown will be streamed live globally by DAZN.
It’s effectively a home fight for native Texan Rodriguez, and it takes place at the home of another Lone Star State institution – the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
Jesse was at the venue this week for a media day ahead of that July blockbuster – which will be a massive unification showdown for the WBC, WBO and Ring magazine super-flyweight world titles.
‘Bam’ is looking to unify at Super-Flyweight having done so at Flyweight in spectacular fashion against Sunny Edwards in Arizona in December 2023, following that with a stunning KO win over Juan Francisco Estrada in the same state last June to become a two-time Super-Flyweight ruler.
‘Bam’ targeting P4P greatness
While Rodriguez obviously cares greatly about world title belts, he has an even greater long-term goal in mind – ascending to the top of boxing’s mythical P4P (pound-for-pound) rankings.
Top spot in the hallowed list from Ring magazine is currently held by heavyweight ruler Oleksandr Usyk – who stands a foot taller and weighs 100lbs more than Rodriguez. Jesse though is keen to show that the little guys are plenty good enough to stand tall in that P4P list.
“I would love to be number one pound-for-pound,” he said.
“There’s a lot of bragging rights being there, and I feel that I can go so far forward from where I am currently at.
“I’m never satisfied, there’s always more to gain and win, so I can go 10 times higher from here. I would love to go undisputed, so that’s two more fights at 115lbs, so we’ll see how it pans out.
“It’s bad ass seeing the smaller weights shine. When I was an amateur, it was Chocolatito that was doing it and I was like ‘Damn, this is cool,’ so for me to be in the same position, it means a lot. I’m so happy to be fighting in Dallas, it’s great to fight back in my home state, I’m happy to be back home.”
Rodriguez vs Cafu undercard
Rodriguez’s clash with Cafu tops a stacked card in Frisco, with the chief support bout of the evening pitting the explosive and unbeaten Diego Pacheco defending his USWBC and WBO International Super-Middleweight titles against Trevor McCumby, while Team USA’s Olympic bronze medal man Omari Jones fights for the third time in the paid ranks, taking on Alfredo Blanco over six rounds, with much more action to be added to the card in due course.
