LAS VEGAS – Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez was preparing to fight another nondescript opponent on a card at a minor league ballpark at this time last year.
Impressive back-to-back victories over former WBC super flyweight champions Carlos Cuadras and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai have since thrust the 22-year-old San Antonio native into the brightest spotlight, the top spot on the Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy undercard. Golovkin on Saturday night. . Rodriguez (16-0, 11 KOs) will make the second defense of the WBC 115-pound crown he won when he outpointed Cuadras on short notice seven months ago against another Mexican veteran, Israel Gonzalez, in the Alvarez-Golovkin fight. . performance at T-Mobile Arena.
If Rodriguez decisively defeats the experienced Gonzalez (28-4-1, 11 KOs), the humble rising star is confident he will have done enough to win multiple “Fighter of the Year” awards for 2022. Rodriguez confirmed Wednesday that a win Saturday night would also secure his spot on the Juan Francisco Estrada-Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez undercard on Dec. 3 at a site to be determined, but the strong southpaw doesn’t think he’ll need a fourth win against an undetermined opponent to clinch the spot. honor you feel you deserve.
“I never really, you know, had that goal, but once I got the midyear award, that’s when my mindset changed,” Rodriguez told a small group of reporters Wednesday at the MGM Grand. “It motivated me more in the gym to go out there and perform. And, you know, on September 17, I’m really going to cement that I’m ‘Fighter of the Year.’ And even after this fight, I won’t need [a fight in] December.
“Of course, I am going to fight in December. But, you know, on September 17, that’s all it will take to go out there and show everyone that I am ‘Fighter of the Year.’ With the performance that I am going to do on Saturday night, people will have no doubts.”
Rodríguez floored Cuadras (39-5-1, 27 KOs) in the third round and convincingly beat him on two scorecards (117-110, 117-110, 115-112) to win the then-vacant WBC super flyweight title. , on February 5 at the Footprint Center in Phoenix. Surprisingly, he handled Thailand’s Sor Rungvisai (50-6-1, 43 KOs) with relative ease on his way to a seventh-round knockdown and eighth-round knockout on June 25 at Tech Port Arena in San Antonio. .
Israel González has lost a 12-round unanimous decision to Roman González (51-3, 41 KOs), a former four-division champion from Nicaragua, and Englishman Kal Yafai (26-1, 15 KOs), a former heavyweight champion. WBA super flyweight. , since November 2019. Former IBF junior bantamweight champion Jerwin Ancajas (33-2-2, 22 KOs) previously stopped Israel Gonzalez in the 10th round of their February 2018 fight.
Eddie Hearn, whose company, Matchroom Boxing, promotes Rodriguez, first listed him as one of the favorites for “Fighter of the Year” on Wednesday.
“Honestly, this is the fastest rise and the key to the activity,” Hearn said. “You know, February against Cuadras. Rungvisai [in June]. Now again in September. If all goes well on Saturday, he will be back in December and he will be, without a doubt, the ‘Fighter of the Year’”.
If Dmitry Bivol beats undefeated former WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez on November 5 in Abu Dhabi, Russia’s Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) could clearly make a strong case of his own for winning the award. “Fighter of the Year”. In his first fight of 2022, Bivol defeated Álvarez, then the consensus pound-for-pound king of boxing, by a 12-round unanimous decision to retain his WBA light heavyweight championship on May 7 at T-Mobile Arena.
Rodríguez-González will be the last pre-fight before Mexico’s Álvarez (57-2-2, 39 KOs) and Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) battle for the IBF super middleweight titles, Álvarez’s WBA, WBC and WBO in the 12-round Main Event of a DAZN Pay-Per-View show ($64.99 for subscribers; $84.99 for non-subscribers). Caesars Sportsbook lists Rodriguez as a 12-1 favorite over Gonzalez.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
