Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez: ‘The Tougher The Opponent, The Better My Performance’

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez is all-in on the bantamweight division.

Rodriguez will face WBA bantamweight titleholder Antonio Vargas on Saturday at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Before the bout, he had given up his WBA, WBO, and WBC junior bantamweight belts, signaling a move up in weight.

Rodriguez, 23-0 (16 KOs), will fall one belt short of holding the undisputed junior bantamweight crown. Instead, he will look to become the figurehead of yet another division.

“Even if we considered moving back down, I think by now, with the work Charles Trembley, our strength and conditioning coach, with Bam, building his body to become a bantamweight, I think it would have been almost impossible to bring him back down,” Robert Garcia, Rodriguez’s trainer, said at Thursday’s press conference. “We made the right decision, and I think Bam is ready to compete at 118 lbs.”

For the 26-year-old Rodriguez, it is the challenges that excite him. Andrew Moloney recently defeated Willibaldo Garcia Perez to win the IBF junior bantamweight title. The one that has eluded Rodriguez. Rather than wait for it, he opted to move up, hoping to become a three-division belt holder.

“I am constantly trying to challenge myself,” Rodriguez said at the press conference. “If it isn’t a world title fight, it really doesn’t interest me. Even if it is just a simple [title] defense, it doesn’t interest me.”

Rodriguez last fought in November, knocking out WBA junior bantamweight titleholder Fernando Martinez in the 10th round. Perceived by some as a 50-50 fight going in, the bout proved to be nothing of the sort.

Despite Vargas, 19-1-1 (11 KOs), being a sizable underdog heading into the bout, Rodriguez has been complimentary of the 2016 U.S. Olympian. Vargas has gone unbeaten since a shocking first-round knockout loss to Jose Maria Cardenas in 2019. That saw him split ties with his original promoter, Top Rank Inc, and rebuild in Florida with Boxlab Promotions. He has been unbeaten since then, with his only fight last year coming in July, when he fought to a draw with Daigo Higa. The 29-year-old from Kissimmee, Florida, Vargas will look to resurrect his amateur days success in the highest-profile fight of his career.

“I feel I haven’t even shown 50 percent of what I am capable of,” Rodriguez said. “The tougher the opponent, the better my performance.”

Rodriguez is already a top-five pound-for-pound fighter. Now he looks to ascend to the top of the list over the last half of this decade. With talk of a potential fight with legend Naoya Inoue surfacing online, his foray into bantamweight will signal what is next for the rising star. 48 hours out, he is confident.

“I feel much better at this weight class,” Rodriguez said.

Lucas Ketelle

Lucas Ketelle is a boxing writer and podcaster who has appeared on various platforms throughout his career.

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