By Huck Allen: Tony Bellew believes WBC super flyweight champion Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez is ready to take on the winner of the trilogy fight between Juan Franciso Estrada and Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez to try and achieve greatness at the early age of 22.
The superstar in the making, ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, is ready to go into the trenches and beat one or both great fighters in his next fight.
Bam’s promoter Eddie Hearn has already given him the go-ahead to take on the winner of the Estrada-Gonzalez 3 trilogy.
The only thing that stands in his way is his trainer Robert Garcia, who prefers that he move back down to 112 to challenge WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez next.
It would be a shame if Robert holds Bam Rodriguez from achieving greatness at an early age because he may not ever get another opportunity like this to face legends in the sport like Chocolatito & Estrada.
After consecutive victories over former WBA 115-lb champions Srisaket Sor Rungvisai & Carlos Cuadras, Bellew believes the unbeaten ‘Bam’ Rodriguez (16-0, 11 KOs) is ready to challenge the legends, Chocolatito Gonzalez (51-3, 41 KOs) and ‘El Gallo’ Estrada (42-3, 28 KOs) before moving up to 118 and 122.
Huge for the 115-lb division, ‘Bam’ Rodriguez already looks big enough to skip the 118-lb weight class and go directly to 122 to challenge world champions Stephen Fulton and Murodjon Akhmadaliev for their belts.
To be sure, before ‘Bam’ Rodriguez takes that step, he’s going to stay at 115 long enough to face the winner of the November or December trilogy match between former four-division world champion ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez and ‘El Gallo’ Estrada.
“There’s talk of Roman Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada going at it again before the year is out, and the winner of that against [Jesse] Rodriguez will be absolutely brutal,” said Bellew to DAZN.
Bellew is 100% right about a fight involving ‘Bam’ Rodriguez facing the Estrada vs. Chocolatito III winner being a “brutal” fight, one that the boxing world would be excited at watching.
Bam Rodriguez can’t afford to wait three to five years to fight Estrada or Chocolatito because those two stars are in their 30s, wealthy, and won’t be around for too much longer.
While it would be great if Bam Rodriguez could get more experience before taking on Chocolatito or Estrada, it’s not possible.
They’re not going to stay around into old age, and even if they did, Bam would have already outgrown the 115-lb weight class by then. He’s got a bigger frame than his brother Joshua Franco and has more potential to become a superstar than him.
“The next few years of Rodriguez’s career have so much potential, and there are several fascinating scenarios,” Bellow said about Bam. “Can he go down to flyweight and clean up there?
“What about a move up to take on the brilliant Stephen Fulton? Or does he aim as high as possible and face Naoya Inoue. The possibilities appear endless for Rodriguez.
“He’s surely knocking on the Pound for Pound list’s door,” said Bellew.
