San Antonio’s Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez put on a spectacular performance Saturday evening at Tech Port Arena, stopping his opponent, Thailand’s Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in round 8.
Rungvisai has an impressive boxing resume. He has previously defeated both Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada; both of which are predicted to be possible opponent’s for Rodriguez’ next fight. But this weekend, Rungvisai could not keep up with the young 22-year-old WBA super flyweight champion. Rodriguez seemed to be dominant in every single round throughout the evening, including flooring the southpaw fighter in round 7, and completely stopping him in the 8th round.
Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said of Rodriguez after the fight,
“This is the youngest champ in boxing and he already might be a pound-for-pound great. He’s here for legacy; he’s here to be remembered. We live in a world of hype, it’s hard not to get too excited. From 108 to 115 pounds, I don’t think I’d back any fighter to beat him. I’m talking about some of the greats, Chocolatito, Estrada…..honestly, would you put those guys as a favorite against Bam Rodriguez? He can go down to 108, to 112, but there is not one fighter that if I put to Robert Garcia, they wouldn’t accept the challenge. He’s here for greatness.”
Rodriguez, who was able to fight in front of his hometown for a title match for the first time, was extremely grateful to be fighting in San Antonio. He said to the city of San Antonio,
“I hope you all enjoyed the show, I put all of my heart out there, and [I’m thankful] to everyone who bought tickets, shirts, it just means everything to me.”
His brother, WBA Super Flyweight champion Joshua Franco, was also in attendance and in Rodriguez’s corner. When Sports As Told By A Girl asked Rodriguez what it meant for him for his brother to be by his side, he said,
“Having my brother in my corner means everything to me, that’s blood, so to have family in your corner means everything, they have your back, they’re supporting you, and I’m very happy to have him in my corner.”
When brother, Franco, was asked what’s next for the brother, he said he had high hopes of sharing the ring with his brother in San Antonio. Franco is hoping his brother fights Chocolatito and he is able to fight Estrada in a duel match in San Antonio.
Now that Rodriguez has proven all of the doubters wrong and is in sports conversations amongst analysts and boxing purists as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in boxing, the goal being a duel match in Rodriguez’s hometown seems much more attainable at this point.
