“It’s crazy to be here,” Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez says as his eyes open wide and he looks around the gaudy old fight city of Las Vegas where, on Saturday night, he promises to breathe fresh hope into a dark and jaded business for the third time this year. Boxing is scarred by corruption and danger but, sometimes, it offers up an exhilarating story. Rodriguez is a little whirlwind who is only five foot four inches tall and until recently weighed only 108lb before he changed his life for ever. He is on course to become world boxing’s Fighter of the Year.
“For me, it’s just amazing and it’s come so fast,” Rodriguez says, his 22-year-old face lit by a stunned smile. “I always knew this day would come but I just didn’t expect it to happen this way.”
Eight months ago he was scheduled to fight on the undercard to a riveting headline battle for the vacant WBC world super-flyweight title between the legendary Thai fighter Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and another seasoned former world champion in Carlos Cuadras. Rodriguez had grown up watching both men and was excited to be fighting on the same bill. Six days before the bout, however, Rungvisai pulled out with an injury and Rodriguez was asked if he would be willing to step in as a replacement. He had been preparing for a fight at light-flyweight, two divisions below the 115lb category where Cuadras, a 44-bout veteran, was waiting.
“When they told me about it, I got so excited because fighting for a world title was something I’ve always dreamed of. I couldn’t pass up that opportunity. I also felt like I was always born to be on that platform so, of course, I went in confident. I already knew how it was going to turn out. But, yeah, in the first round it was crazy, because I was thinking: ‘I’m actually in the ring with Carlos Cuadras. I used to watch all his fights on HBO, up against Chocolatito [the great Román González] and all those other champions. So to actually be in the ring with him was mind-blowing, and to perform the way I did against him just made the win that much better.”
Rodriguez had had only 14 previous professional fights but he boxed like an old master as, using deft angles and footwork, he set up Cuadras for a shuddering right uppercut which knocked the Mexican down in the third round. Cuadras was shocked but he staggered up and saw out the fight, which Rodriguez dominated to win easily on points. Apart from becoming the youngest current world champion boxer he made another small slice of history: Rodriguez is the first world champion to have been born in the 21st century.
“It was all so cool that, honestly, I only slept like 45 minutes that night. I was very high after that win so it was hard to sleep.”
Rodriguez made his first title defence four months later in June. In an act of striking audacity he agreed to fight Rungvisai, the multiple former world champion who had won 50 of his 56 fights during a 13-year career. Rodriguez lived up to his “Bam” nickname as a blurring explosion of punches ended the fight in the eighth round when Rungvisai had to be rescued by the referee. “I saw a lot of talk on social media that it was too early for me, that he hit too hard and he was going to knock me out,” Rodriguez says. “So for me to stop him shocked a lot of people and it made the win that much sweeter.”
Surely he was nervous and wary when stepping into the ring with Rungvisai? “I was a little cautious about the power but, other than that, I was very confident. I knew I was going to stop him, but it was just a matter of not getting touched up by him because he does hit hard. I felt them all right, and he’s the hardest puncher I’ve ever faced, but he never really hit me clean. I was just blocking his shots so it was a matter of time before the stoppage came. I was sore for about a day afterwards but I have no problem fighting these famous guys at 115.”
Rodriguez grins, looking shyer than he sounds, and he soon steps away from such bold talk to explain the struggle of his family in San Antonio. His older brother, Joshua Franco, is also a world-class super-flyweight nicknamed ‘The Professor’ because he wears glasses and looks a little geeky outside the ring where he has lost only one of 22 bouts. But their parents battled with debt for years. “My family are very proud of us and that means the world to me,” Rodriguez says, “because I know what we’ve been through coming up as amateurs. We had a regular childhood with no problems, but once my brother and I started going to national tournaments around the United States things started getting tough. My parents went broke because they were paying all their money to support us. We would go to all these tournaments but at home the water had been cut off. It was very hard and we had to ask for loans. Now it’s all paid off and I’m very thankful for the sacrifice of my parents.”
On Saturday night Rodriguez leads the undercard to boxing’s biggest fight of the year between Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez and Gennady Golovkin in Las Vegas. “I’ve only met Canelo once and it was back in March at a fight. I was sitting in the front row and Canelo came over and moved everyone out of the way to say congratulations on my victory over Cuadras. He’s the face of boxing and for him to notice what I did and to go out of his way to offer congratulations was so special.”
For the first time this year Rodriguez will step into the ring as the favourite when he defends his world title against Israel Gonzalez. If he wins in dominant style again, many boxing insiders believe he could seal his place as 2022’s Fighter of the Year.
“This is a huge fight for me,” Rodriguez says, “probably bigger than my last two fights because it’s on the biggest card of boxing in Vegas. So this is the perfect platform to go out there and show not just the hardcore boxing people but the casual fans what I can do. I’m one of those fighters you see very rarely, a once-in-a-generation world champion, and people are going to see that on Saturday night in Las Vegas. I’m going to go out there and be spectacular and show everyone that I really am the fighter of the year.”
Rodriguez looks up and grips my hand with one last dazzling smile. “It’s crazy,” he says, “but it’s beautiful.”
