By Allan Fox: Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has signed WBC super flyweight champion Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez to a multi-year extension.
Hearn is counting on the 22-year-old Bam Rodriguez to continue to find success after his eighth-round knockout over 35-year-old veteran Sriskaet Sor Rungvisai last Saturday night at the Tech Port Arena in San Antonio, Texas.
Like in Bam Rodriguez’s previous fight against a faded Carlos Cuadras, he was matched against an old veteran in Rungvisai, who was six years past his prime and there for the picking. Bam took advantage of Rungvisai’s advanced age and inactivity to stop him in the eighth.
In the aftermath of the fight, Hearn doesn’t seem eager to throw Bam Rodriguez in with Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez, Naoya Inoue, Juan Francisco Estrada, Stephen Fulton, Nonito Donaire, or Murodjon Akhmadaliev.
While some of those fighters compete in weight classes above Bam’s, they’re the same size as him. When Bam Rodriguez is rehydrated, he’s just as big as Akhmadaliev, Fulton, and Inoue.
The only reason why Hearn wouldn’t want to match Bam Rodriguez against those fighters is that he might lose to them, and his popularity would take a hit in getting exposed.
But suppose Hearn seriously believes Bam Rodriguez is a superstar in the making. In that case, he’s got to test him against fighters still in their prime rather than scouring the old veteran’s home and looking for guys that washed up, as we saw in his last two fights against Rungvisai & Cuadras.
“Honestly, it feels like a movie. When I got in the ring, I envisioned myself being in a movie. That’s honestly what it felt like since I got here and when I arrived to my locker room to now. It still feels like a dream,” said Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez to Matchroom Boxing.
“It was just more fuel to the fire, more motivation in training and in the fight,” Bam continued when asked if he ever got nervous. “During the fight, I was in my hometown, and I put on a great performance for the crowd.
“In the first round, the game plan was to go in there and start slow and see how his power is. His power is the real deal,” Bam Rodriguez said about Rungvisai. “I felt it, but like I said, in the third round, it started fading away, and that’s when I decided to take over.
“It’s the work that I put in the gym with Robert [Garcia],” said Rodriguez when asked where he gets the mobility from. “We executed a game plan that we were working on in camp, and it showed out tonight. He couldn’t be more than happy.
“When I was in there blocking shots, there were points where I slipped, and it was very few inches from my chin. I knew I had to be careful, but it’s a huge advantage having Robert, and he remained me,” said Bam.
