Matchroom chairman Eddie Hearn revealed Saturday when he expects Jesse Rodriguez to fight next.
Widely-regarded one of the five best pound-for-pound fighters in boxing, ‘Bam’ Rodriguez is a dominant two-weight world champion with thumping wins over Wisaksil Wangek, Sunny Edwards, and Juan Francisco Estrada, among others.
Alongside fighters like Shakur Stevenson, Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, and Richardson Hitchins, ‘Bam’ represents one of Matchroom’s most important boxers considering the company’s increasingly-relevant presence in a critical but underserved American market.
But Hearn’s company almost lost Rodriguez to upstart fight firm Zuffa Boxing, who bid for the boxer when he became a free agent after his last title fight — a 10th round knockout win over Fernando Daniel Martinez at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, late, last year.
Matchroom exercised matching rights and offered similar terms to retain him on their roster.
Speaking at the post-event press conference, following Eduardo Nunez’s loss to dominant three-weight king Emanuel Navarette, Hearn explained what’s next for ‘Bam’.
“We’re planning the next fight with Robert [Garcia] and ‘Bam’, and I think it’ll be end of May or early June.”
As Boxing Social exclusively reported this week, the IBF have ordered purse bids for a mandatory fight between the super flyweight world champion Willibaldo Garcia and the challenger Andrew Moloney. We also later reported exclusively that Moloney kept rejecting Eddie Hearn’s approach for step-aside money, as the Aussie boxer refused to sell his dream.
Hearn touched on this: “Willibaldo Garcia has a mandatory [fight] against Andrew Moloney, which he can’t get out of. And Moloney won’t move, not for step-aside, and not for a spot on the undercard to fight the winner. And I respect that. He wants his shot.”
The Matchroom chairman continued: “We’re talking to BXSTRS about maybe hosting that fight, talking to ‘Bam’ and Robert about maybe moving to bantamweight for a fight against [WBO champion Christian] Medina, ‘Chispa’, who just fought on our show in Guadalajara, and maybe returning to [super flyweight] to fight for [the] undisputed [championship].
“It’ll be difficult to fight that [undisputed] fight next,” Hearn added, “unless it happens very quickly.”
While the opponent remains to be seen, what’s certain is the timeline — end of May or early June — and the location, with Matchroom liking “a big homecoming fight” in San Antonio.
Rodriguez is 23-0 (16 KOs).
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