BOXING phenom Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez will attempt to become a two-division unified world champion on a July 19 Matchroom card.
The 25-year-old faces Phumulela Cafu at The Star in Frisco, 19 months on from one of his greatest nights—a ninth-round victory over Sunny Edwards to unify the flyweight division. With the WBC and WBO titles at stake, Rodriguez, 21-0 (14 KOs), will look to follow in the footsteps of the iconic Johnny Tapia, who unified the 115lb division in 1997 by beating Danny Romero Jr at the Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas.
More recently, Fernando Martinez also became a dual belt holder after defeating Kazuto Ioka in Japan last summer to take both the IBF and WBA titles back to his homeland of Argentina. Martinez and Ioka face one another again on May 11, but only with the WBA belt at stake, after ‘Pumita’ chose to vacate his IBF title. The IBF title remains vacant after Willibaldo Garcia and Rene Calixto fought to a draw for it in December 2024.
As for Rodriguez, his quest for stardom shows no signs of slowing, and he will be strongly favoured to beat Cafu, 11-0-3 (8 KOs), in this southpaw battle. The 26-year-old South African annexed the WBO title with a disputed split decision win over Kosei Tanaka in Japan in October 2024. Tanaka was dropped in round five, and that 10-8 stanza ultimately was the deciding factor, with the judges’ scorecards reading 114-113, 113-114, 114-113 for the winner.
A month on from Cafu’s victory, Rodriguez returned to outclass Pedro Guevara by third-round stoppage. Victory for ‘Bam’ on July 19 would solidifiy his place among the very best in the world and cement his spot as the number one super flyweight and a top 10 pound-for-pound fighter.
Bam Rodriguez looks forward to becoming unified champion
In quotes attributed to a Matchroom press release, Rodriguez said: “I’m excited to finally step back into the ring. I cannot wait to fight in front of my home state fans. I’m looking forward to unifying in another weight division.
“I know Cafu is a tough opponent, but these kinds of fights bring out the best in me and I’ll be ready for whatever he brings. July 19 tune in and witness greatness.”
Cafu, meanwhile, is thrilled at another opportunity to upset the odds away from home and show his worth.
“This is awesome, man, because once again I get to step in with an elite fighter and prove the world wrong, showing people that I’m also an elite fighter,” he said.
“I’ve always wanted to fight him because people think he is the bogeyman of the division and say he is unbeatable, but I’ll prove to the people that no one is unbeatable. Beating him will put me on the pound-for-pound list, and I will be King of the division.”
Joining Rodriguez-Cafu on the undercard will be WBO number one super-middleweight contender Diego Pacheco who faces Trevor McCumby.
