BIRMINGHAM, England – Eddie Hearn has hinted that it is likely that unified junior bantamweight champion Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez could move up to 118lbs instead of pushing to become undisputed.
The rising pound-for-pound star Rodriguez added a third 115lbs title to his collection on Saturday, when he brutally knocked out Fernando Martinez to claim his WBA title. The current holder of the fourth, and final, belt at junior bantamweight is IBF titlist Willibaldo Garcia, who defends his strap against Kenshiro Teraji on December 27. It was expected that Rodriguez would face the victor in an undisputed match-up next year, but the IBF have ordered the winner to face mandatory challenger Andrew Moloney in their first defense. Moloney has recently announced that he will not be taking any amount to step aside and intends on enforcing his shot at the title.
This has left Rodriguez, a fighter who has recently bounced from big name to big name in the lighter divisions, in a difficult situation: Stick around and wait for a shot at undisputed or move up and claim a title in a third weight class?
“You know, we're not going to hang around to try and get that final belt,” Rodriguez’s promoter Hearn told BoxingScene. “It would be an amazing thing to do to try and get the undisputed championship. I don't believe Moloney has boxed for an eliminator but if that's the ruling, that's the ruling, and if there's nothing we can do about it, it is what it is. So we would have to make the decision then.
“I would love ‘Bam’ to become undisputed but he can do that at bantamweight anyway. He's 25 years old. So the most important thing for me, subject to what Robert Garcia and ‘Bam’ want to do, I would love to bring him back to San Antonio in early summer and bring him that homecoming. I would have liked that for undisputed, but if it's to become a three-division champion, that's cool too. He's just got so much upside, ‘Bam’. He's got such a huge future but bantamweight could be next.”
The plan for Rodriguez prior to Moloney’s interference was to face Teraji – should he beat Garcia – in an undisputed junior bantamweight title clash in Japan. That now looks unlikely, but another bout that could interest a Japanese audience is one at bantamweight between Rodriguez and newly crowned WBC champion Takuma Inoue.
“Yeah, maybe, maybe, but you know, ‘Bam’'s a big star in America as well,” said Hearn of the bout. “[Rodriguez] does want to fight in Japan. We expected to maybe fight [Kenshiro] Teraji in Japan for undisputed, but again, anything's possible. We'll see.”
