Fuentes-Rodriguez: Dancing for Another Chance

By Cliff Rold

The attention of most US fight fans will be where it should be on Saturday night. An all-Brooklyn showdown between two top ten middleweights, with exciting featherweight Jesus Cuellar underneath, is good action. It might be Showtime’s best show of the year.

It might not be the best fight of the week.

By night’s end, that honor may belong to this week’s main event on BeIn Sports Espanol (11 PM EST/8 PM PST). Be thankful for DVR. There’s no reason not to see both.

On BeIn, fans can look forward to a possible all-Mexican war in the Jr. flyweight division. Former unified WBO and IBF 105 lb. titlist Francisco Rodriguez Jr. (17-3-1, 11 KO) will face off with former WBO 105 lb. titlist Moises Fuentes (22-2-1, 12 KO). The winner may be in line for a crack at Ring Magazine and WBO 108 lb. titlist Donnie Nietes (37-1-4, 21 KO)…or at least any vacant belt he leaves behind if Nietes finally makes the jump to the 112 lb. ranks.

For either, it would be familiar territory. Nietes is one of boxing’s best-kept veteran secrets. Part of Nietes’ bona fides: wins over Fuentes and Rodriguez. Nietes and Rodriguez have tangled twice. In their first bout in 2013, Nietes was fought to a draw on his home turf in the Philippines. Matched again in 2014, Nietes won an outstanding fight, ending Fuentes’s hopes for a title in a second division with a ninth-round knockout.

Nietes and Rodriguez clashed in July of this year in what was, for their division, an anticipated showdown. It was a fun fight but one Nietes clearly carried.

Based on previous form, there is little reason to think Nietes doesn’t beat either man in another return. So what makes this fight so much potential fun?

They aren’t fighting Nietes this weekend. They’re fighting each other.

And they’re going to fight.

Of the two, Fuentes is a little more comfortable playing the boxer/counter puncher. Rodriguez is at his best coming forward and letting the leather fly. Their styles should mix for all sorts of violence and both have shown enough beard to expect this to go rounds. This is the kind of collision that could emerge as a dark horse hardcore favorite late in the year for whatever accolades fight writers come up with to kill time between the end of one boxing ‘season’ and start of another.

This will be Rodriguez’s first start since the Nietes loss. Fuentes has won three straight since his only stoppage loss, all of them at or above the flyweight limit of 112 lbs. It appeared that was where Fuentes, taller than Rodriguez by two inches at 5’6, would be making his home. That he’s even toying with 108 lbs. still may be tempting fate. 5’6 isn’t tall many places, but at flyweight it’s a large frame.

In his last fight, Fuentes was matched with another former 105 lb. beltholder, Oswaldo Novoa. It was the best of the wins on his current streak, a dominant sixth-round stoppage. For Fuentes, age could be a factor. At 30, he’s not that young for the lighter weight classes. He has to win now.

He knows how much fun it isn’t to be the old guy. After winning the WBO 105 lb. title in 2011 from Raul Garcia is a scrappy fight, Fuentes made his second defense against Ivan Calderon in 2012. Calderon has once been one of the best at 105 and 108 lbs. By the time he faced Fuentes, he was 37 and run out of the ring in five rounds.

Fuentes is not at that point yet, but he wasn’t quite what Calderon was at peak either.

Rodriguez has more time on his side but he won’t want another loss on his docket. It’s kind of hard to believe Rodriguez is still only 22. He’s already faced, and lost to, Nietes and Roman Gonzalez. He’s already unified belts and won a Fight of the Year (at least according to ESPN and this site against Katsunari Takayama in 2014).

This being boxing, it doesn’t take much for a fighter to slip from contender to opponent. Rodriguez needs a statement declaring he’s still in the mix. There’s no shame in losing to guys like Nietes and Gonzalez. They are two of the very best in the lower weights this decade. Gonzalez has a chance to be one of the better flyweight fighters in history before he’s done.

Fuentes is a notch below that level. It’s a notch Rodriguez needs on his win column.

No matter what they are ultimately fighting for, whether it is another shot at Nietes or a vacant belt down the road, we can feel safe thinking that they’ll be fighting for the championship of each other this weekend. 

Who knows? Jacobs-Quillin might end early enough to make DVR a moot point.

Cliff’s Notes…

The IBF can do whatever they have to do with their belt. Deontay Wilder can tweet whatever comes to mind. Until someone beats Tyson Fury, there is no other real heavyweight king than him whatsoever…Fury’s win over Wladimir Klitschko wasn’t aesthetically pleasing cut considering the stakes, and who he beat, shouldn’t he be a front-runner now for Fighter of the Year…Finished the first season of Jessica Jones and highly recommend it to everyone. The Kilgrave character is the best villain yet in any Marvel media…It’s geek heaven to live at a time when a show like Jessica Jones can exist at the same time as Flash and Arrow and all of them are delivering…Congratulations to Peter Nelson on his ascension at HBO. He should be good for the fans…Did Canelo-Cotto really do 900,000 buys? It depends who you ask…Keep eyes peeled for a report card on Jacobs-Quillin.

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com