Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez is receiving high praise ahead of his highly anticipated bout against renowned WBC junior bantamweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada on Saturday (June 29).
The 24-year-old challenger will be looking to reclaim the title he once held after moving down to the flyweight division in the 12-round bout, which will take place at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
Rodriguez (19-0, 12 KOs), who is trained by Robert Garcia, has had an incredible run at lower weight classes, including consecutive wins over the likes of Carlos Cuadras and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in 2022. He followed up those high-weight wins with the most impressive performance of his career last December, stopping the previously unbeaten Sonny Edwards in ninth round.
Estrada's record of 44-3 (28 KOs) makes a compelling case for Hall of Fame induction. The 34-year-old is one of the best “little men” of the modern era, and his two wins over the great Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez are arguably his best moments to date. Still, Probox TV commentators Timothy Bradley, Paulie Malignaggi and Chris Algieri predict the veteran will have a tough time beating a fighter 10 years his junior.
“It's going to be a tough task for Estrada,” Bradley said. “He's not going to get any respect or win on the scorecards unless he can knock out or catch and hurt a guy like Bam Rodriguez. I think Bam Rodriguez could get a late stoppage.”
Malignaggi added: “These lower weight classes are getting more attention than ever before. Certain generations are getting more attention than others, but this generation has guys like Edwards, guys like Rodriguez, guys like Estrada, guys like Chocolatito.”
“It's not the fact that he won. [against Edwards]”He won in style. He was able to impress and essentially beat Edwards, who was in top form himself. I've got to put a kid like this on my pound-for-pound list and that's what he essentially did.”
That win over Edwards, who lost his IBF flyweight belt, also caught Algieri's attention. “He showed a different side in that fight,” Algieri said. “I was really impressed with his boxing ability. He beat Sonny Edwards with his jab. Sonny is a boxer. I was saying up until that fight that it was a mirror match. They're only 10 years apart in age. Then Bam did what he did against Sonny and you could see his boxing IQ was on another level. You could see his ability to adapt to whoever was in front of him.”
“I think Bam will do it again,” Algieri continued. “He's young, he's got that youthful energy, he's got that boxing ability and he's got that ability to change styles, so he's almost impossible to beat.”
