LAS VEGAS – Eddie Hearn doesn’t think there is any active 115-pound fighter that Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez can’t beat.
That includes Juan Francisco Estrada and Roman “Chocolatito” González. In fact, if Rodriguez defeats Israel Gonzalez on the Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin undercard on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena, he will make a relatively quick comeback against an undetermined opponent on the Estrada-Roman Gonzalez undercard on Dec. 3. in a place to be announced.
If Rodriguez’s reign as WBC super flyweight champion continues tonight as well, Hearn, whose company promotes Rodriguez, intends to pit the 22-year-old southpaw against the Estrada-Gonzalez winner. That’s how smart Rodriguez has shown himself by beating former WBC 115-pound champions Carlos Cuadras and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in back-to-back fights this year.
“I think it’s one of the fastest rises to division dominance that I’ve ever seen,” Hearn told a group of reporters recently at the MGM Grand, where he was sitting next to Rodriguez. “And it’s so remarkable that you have a guy that I would back to beat any fighter at 108, 112 and 115 pounds. That goes for ‘Chocolatito’ and Estrada, two great ones. I feel that ‘Chocolatito’ is getting better and better. He would back Jesse Rodriguez to beat those guys now.”
Rodriguez (16-0, 11 KOs) of San Antonio has discussed going back down to 112 pounds and even 108 pounds, two divisions he has competed in since making his pro debut at age 17 in March 2017.
Beyond boxing the winner of Estrada-Gonzalez in the 115-pound division, Hearn would welcome Rodriguez by challenging 112-pound champion Julio Cesar Martinez (18-2, 14 KOs, 2 NC), who holds the WBC belt, and Sunny Edwards (18-0, 4 KOs), who holds the IBF title. Hearn also mentioned a matchup with WBA super lightweight champion Hiroto Kyoguchi (16-0, 11 KOs) if Rodriguez dropped to 108 pounds.
“It’s so unusual, where you have a guy going back to become a multi-weight world champion,” Hearn said. “Like, when in history [has it happened]? I’m sure it’s happened before, but it’s very unusual to see a guy win a world title, lose weight and win a world title, and lose weight and maybe win another world championship. All multi-division world champions in men’s boxing generally move up a division.
“But I actually like him at 115 pounds. I feel that he is a young man. You know, he also quite likes his food between fights. He doesn’t mind putting a little weight on it. He is talking about dieting this week. He wants to go down to 112, 108. But you talk about Canelo going down to 175, going back down to 168, I think 108 would be pretty brutal for him. Now, I am sure that he will make it.”
The biggest of the aforementioned fights, of course, would be for Rodriguez to fight the winner of the decider between Mexico’s Estrada (43-3, 28 KOs) and Nicaragua’s Gonzalez (51-3, 41 KOs).
“I feel like if you beat Cuadras, you beat Rungvisai, the only next step for him at 115 is the Estrada-Chocolatito winner,” Hearn said. “Actually, he could fight the winner or the loser of that fight. And, you know, Teiken [Promotions] and Mr. [Akihiko] Honda has ‘Chocolatito’, and I keep talking about that fight. Obviously, they’re all friends, but over time, that could be such a big fight that both fighters say, ‘Yeah, we want to be a part of it.’ … [Rodriguez] wants to fight the winner. You know, I mean, it’s pretty unusual to be a guy fighting on the card that could beat both of them. [in the main event]. For me, I think that’s the natural fight, to fight the winner of that fight.”
Rodríguez’s fight against Israel González (28-4-1, 11 KOs) will be the co-feature of 12 rounds against Álvarez of Mexico (57-2-2, 39 KOs) and Golovkin of Kazakhstan (42-1-1, 37 KOs). ) fight for the third time for Álvarez’s IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles. Caesars Sportsbook listed Rodriguez as a 20-1 favorite on Friday.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
