The Rodriguez Mentality: Wham, Bam, No Tuneups, Ma’am

Think about if a younger, proficient junior middleweight had come alongside within the mid-‘80s — assume Donald Curry, Mike McCallum, Davey Moore, somebody like that — and proceeded to outbox Roberto Duran, then knock out Tommy Hearns, then spar with Marvin Hagler whereas making ready to tackle Sugar Ray Leonard.

The fashionable-day tremendous flyweights actually don’t stand elevated on the identical pedestal as the long-lasting Eighties “4 Kings,” but when we’re keen to squint and make slight reaches for the sake of handy equivalencies, the above almost-inconceivable situation describes what Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez is at present doing.

Two weeks after turning 22, he dropped and decisioned Carlos Cuadras. 4 months later, he stopped Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, one thing no opponent had carried out since Srisaket’s second professional bout. On Saturday, he’ll be taking up Juan Francisco Estrada. And in preparation, he’s sparred 24 rounds with Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez.

All this at simply 24 years of age.

The phrase “dare to be nice” has maybe by no means match a boxer any extra snugly than it matches Bam Rodriguez.

Rodriguez’s coach, Robert Garcia, captured his fighter’s mentality completely after I spoke to him final week. He advised me how Rodriguez responded when, earlier than that they had made the deal to struggle Estrada, his promoter, Matchroom Boxing, proposed a spring tune-up struggle for him.

“Matchroom gave me a date in April in opposition to an opponent that will have been only a stay-busy struggle, and Bam didn’t need it,” Garcia mentioned. “He needs to struggle one of the best fighters in his division. He loves these challenges. The best way Bam is, each struggle he needs an even bigger problem and an even bigger problem. He doesn’t wish to waste his time taking a stay-busy struggle.”

The Cuadras struggle, on Feb. 5, 2022, actually advised us all we wanted to learn about Rodriguez’s dare-to-be-great angle. Bam was a flyweight — and an undersized one at that, weighing between 109 and 111 kilos for his earlier six bouts. He was set to tackle Fernando Diaz in a flyweight contest in his first struggle with Matchroom, on the undercard beneath a Cuadras vs. Srisaket headliner.

On 5 days’ discover, Srisaket needed to pull out.

On 5 days’ discover, Rodriguez, an undersized 22-year-old flyweight who’d by no means gone greater than eight rounds in his transient, 14-fight profession, mentioned sure to a struggle for a 115-pound belt in opposition to a veteran of 44 professional fights who’d already confronted Srisaket as soon as, Chocolatito as soon as, and Estrada twice.

“They requested me,” Garcia recalled, “is he actually loopy sufficient to leap up in weight and exchange Rungvisai? And he took the problem.”

That night time on the Footprint Middle in Phoenix, Bam didn’t simply dare to be nice. He was nice. The southpaw Rodriguez began unleashing mixtures Cuadras couldn’t defend in opposition to within the second spherical, dropped the Mexican veteran with a proper uppercut within the third, and continued to impress because the rounds wore on, whether or not circling and boxing, cleverly darting out and in, or standing flat-footed and buying and selling. After 12 rounds, Rodriguez prevailed by scores of 115-112 and 117-110 twice.

As sensible as Rodriguez was that night time, Cuadras in all probability stands out as having the fourth-place profession of the 4 males who’ve dominated the decrease weight courses over the past decade or so, going 1-3 in opposition to these rivals. Subsequent Bam dared for greatness in opposition to a person in Srisaket who’s 3-2 in opposition to Gonzalez, Estrada, and Cuadras.

In a battle of southpaws 13 years aside in age, Rodriguez dazzled together with his pace and footwork, swept each spherical, dropped the Thai veteran with a left cross within the seventh, and did what not one of the miniature 4 Kings might in opposition to him, forcing a stoppage within the eighth.

What Rodriguez did to Sunny Edwards final December doesn’t match into the identical narrative of beating up one of the best of an period he’s single handedly inflicting to be bygone. However what he did was no much less spectacular and was no much less the results of his burning want to face the absolute best opposition struggle after struggle. Difficult although the beforehand unbeaten Edwards is, Rodriguez steadily overwhelmed him and dropped him on the finish of the ninth spherical with a left hand, convincing his nook to give up between rounds.

Afterward, Bam declared what he’d simply carried out “badass as fuck.”

Generally the fighters put it into phrases higher than any author might.

Subsequent up is Estrada this Saturday, once more on the Footprint Middle in Phoenix. Though a number of the outcomes have been controversial, Estrada is a gaudy 5-2 in opposition to the three chief rivals of his technology. Even when he had been 0-7 in opposition to them, simply combating these dudes seven occasions whole can be, to borrow a phrase, “badass as fuck.” Estrada, like the person 10 years his junior with whom he’ll share the ring this weekend, dares to be nice.

“I do consider that Estrada shall be our hardest opponent till now,” Garcia mentioned.

Agreed Rodriguez after I spoke to him a couple of days in the past, “He’s been in there with a whole lot of nice names, and crushed the nice names as nicely. That is positively my hardest struggle and profitable this might be the most important win of my profession.”

Recognizing the magnitude of this problem, Crew Rodriguez isn’t messing round relating to sparring. If he isn’t going to search out event to formally face off in opposition to the best of this group — one-time pound-for-pound king Gonzalez — Bam at the very least pounced on the chance to share a hoop with Chocolatito informally.

Garcia trains Rodriguez out of his health club in Riverside, California, and he realized a couple of weeks in the past that Gonzalez, who’s scheduled to struggle July 12 in his native Nicaragua, was coaching about an hour away in Coachella.

“I acquired a name from Mr. [Akihiko] Honda, who promotes Chocolatito and helps me with Bam additionally,” Garcia defined. “He mentioned, if I used to be , we might have them do some sparring classes. So we did two eight-round classes in my health club and one in Coachella.

“It was a number of the most stunning sparring I’ve ever seen. They didn’t go to battle. They didn’t attempt to knock one another out. They each simply fought so superbly, and it was the sort of sparring the place no directions had been wanted.”

I requested Rodriguez if he was awed in any respect, discovering himself swapping punches with in all probability one of the best fighter in boxing’s lowest weight divisions for the reason that retirement of Ricardo Lopez.

“Yeah, I used to be a bit shocked, within the first spherical, that we had been truly sparring,” Rodriguez mentioned. “It was like, man, I’m actually within the ring with him. It’s simply sparring, however simply to share a hoop with a fighter like Chocolatito, it’s a blessing.”

Gonzalez’s 2-4 file in opposition to Estrada, Srisaket, and Cuadras doesn’t do him justice, because it contains three disputed determination losses. Two of these controversial defeats got here within the final three years in opposition to Estrada. Chocolatito and Gallo have fought 36 rounds in all counting their first struggle approach again in 2012 (when Rodriguez was 12 years previous), so it’s exhausting to think about any fighter with the ability to supply higher insights and recommendation that Gonzalez might on strategy combating Estrada.

So what recommendation did he supply Rodriguez?

“He didn’t inform me something, actually,” Bam mentioned. “We simply sparred and that was it.”

“No phrases had been mentioned. There was nothing to be mentioned, proper?” Garcia added. “I like this about Chocolatito. He didn’t come to inform us, ‘That you must do that, you should try this.’ And we didn’t ask him both. We’re not on the lookout for his recommendation as a result of, you recognize, it’s completely totally different, their kinds are totally different. It was nearly getting the expertise that we’re getting sparring somebody like Chocolatito.”

Rodriguez has acquired 12 rounds of expertise in opposition to Cuadras, eight in opposition to Srisaket, and, albeit with headgear and no stakes, 24 with Gonzalez.

Someplace between one and 12 with Estrada await.

Rodriguez doesn’t consider in tuneups. He doesn’t consider in losing time. If he might struggle extra reigning champs, former champs, and future Corridor of Famers, he would.

Finally, he’ll get round to cleansing out his personal technology. He simply must dare to disrespect his elders yet one more time first.

Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with greater than 25 years of expertise masking the game for such retailers as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, Ringside Seat, and The Ring (the place he served as managing editor for seven years). He additionally co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Principle and at present co-hosts The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney. He has gained three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outdoors boxing, he’s the senior editor of CasinoReports and the creator of 2014’s The Moneymaker Impact. He might be reached on X or LinkedIn, or by way of electronic mail at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.