On June 13, at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, California, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez will make his bantamweight debut against Antonio Vargas. However, many fans are already dreaming of a further move up in weight that would place him in the same division as Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani—the two protagonists of the sensational all-Japanese showdown set to take place this Saturday in Tokyo.
Rodriguez has already been a world champion at flyweight and super flyweight. He is unbeaten in 23 professional fights, with 16 knockouts, and is ranked No. 4 in The Ring magazine’s pound-for-pound rankings.
The highly talented American fighter, trained by Robert Garcia, places no limits on his ambitions. He would be willing to face “The Monster” Inoue even if the fight were offered to him immediately. Here’s what he said on an episode of the “Mr. Verzace Podcast”:
“If that fight was presented to me right now,” Rodriguez said, “I’d definitely go ahead and take it. I really don’t care where it is. I love going to Japan anyway, so if I were to go to fight out there for the first time that would be great. … If it’s in the United States, that’s great as well, just because there’s a lot of Mexican American fans that would support as well. Wherever the fight ends up being, I don’t care, as long as the fight happens.”
Rodriguez was then asked for his prediction on the upcoming clash between Inoue and Nakatani, and “Bam” said he sees “The Monster” as a slight favorite, while adding that the fight could be decided by whoever lands the first big punch:
“I think it’s a great fight. I think whoever lands the first big punch definitely is gonna put the other to sleep. But it’s gonna be hard. That’s a great fight. They’re both pound-for-pound greats. They’re both world champions. So, I think this is the kind of fight that like whoever lands first is going to win.”