Now comes the hard part for Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez.
The junior bantamweight champion from San Antonio was not well known when he stunned the boxing world by beating Carlos Cuadras and knocking out Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in back-to-back fights this year.
Now Rodriguez is where Cuadras and Sor Rungvisai were, at the top of the 115-pound division. And like them, he now has a target on his back.
That new dynamic begins on Saturday’s Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin undercard in Las Vegas, where he will defend his belt against Israel Gonzalez.
“Of course, being a world champion is what everyone wants,” Rodriguez told Boxing Junkie. “… They want to take away what I have. I can’t let that happen.
Rodriguez’s rapid rise (16-0, 11 KOs) was no fluke, though luck played a part in landing the Cuadras fight.
Sor Rungvisai was scheduled to face Cuadras in a rematch of their 2014 fight, but the Thai boxer had to withdraw due to illness. Rodríguez agreed to step in with a week’s notice, which seemed suicidal given Cuadras’ track record.
Surprise surprise. Cuadras was competitive until he dropped in the third round, after which Rodriguez, too quick and too skilled for the Mexican, took over the fight and won a lopsided decision to become the WBC secondary champion. (Juan Francisco Estrada is the champion of the “franchise”).
Next up was former champion Sor Rungvisai, the two-time winner of the great Román González. So much for a 22-year-old upstart like Rodriguez, right? Wrong.
“Bam” didn’t just beat Sor Rungvisai, he pummeled and finally knocked him out in the eighth round in June at Tech Port Center + Arena in San Antonio. No one had stopped Sor Rungvisai since his second professional fight in 2009.
“That was very special,” Rodríguez said of the victory. “People were saying on social media that Sor Rungvisai was too strong for me, that they were going to knock me out. For me to be the one who stopped him, shut up everyone, shut up those who doubt. So it was special.
“And it was in my hometown. So it couldn’t have been better.”
Rodríguez did not celebrate much. He quickly returned to the gym to begin preparation for his next fight, which turned out to be the capable Gonzalez (28-4-1, 11 KOs).
In fact, there seems to be no chance of him succumbing to complacency. His goal was not simply to become a world champion; he wanted to remain one.
He didn’t even talk about which opponents might be beyond Gonzalez, even though Estrada and Gonzalez are the biggest prizes in the division. His attention is focused squarely on the task at hand.
“I have worked very hard for this fight,” he said. “I have worked just as hard for this fight, maybe more. I feel better about this fight than I did about those two fights (Cuadras and Sor Rungvisai). I think my performance will be better than the last two fights.
“…My ultimate goal is to be a legend. When I retire I want people to look back and remember me, like Tyson and Ali, those legends.”
He’s off to a good start.
Gallery
Photos: Jesse Rodriguez’s stunning knockout of Srisaket Sor Rungvisai
