When is Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs. Phumelele Cafu?

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs. Phumelele Cafu is on Saturday, July 19. The broadcast will begin at 7 p.m. Eastern Time (midnight BST). 

What channel is Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs. Phumelele Cafu on?

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs. Phumelele Cafu will stream on DAZN.

Where is Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs. Phumelele Cafu?

The fight is taking place at The Ford Center at The Star, a stadium in Frisco, Texas, that serves as the practice facility for the Dallas Cowboys.

Who is Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez?

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez is the WBC titleholder and lineal champion at junior bantamweight, a pound-for-pound talent who is scheduled for two separate unification bouts in 2025 – this one against Cafu and another in November against Fernando Martinez – to firm up his claim to the throne. He then could be headed toward dream matches at bantamweight and above. 

Rodriguez first stormed onto the scene in 2022, defeating Carlos Cuadras by decision to win a vacant world title, then defending it with an eighth-round TKO of Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. Cuadras and Sor Ringvisai were two of the previous decade’s “four kings” at 115lbs. Bam soon dropped the belt and dropped back down to flyweight, outpointing Cristian Gonzalez Hernandez for a vacant world title in April 2023 and sending Sunny Edwards packing after nine rounds that December to add another belt.

Last year, Rodriguez returned to junior bantamweight for a June 2024 fight with Juan Francisco Estrada, the third king and the only one of the four still atop the division. Rodriguez downed Estrada in the fourth, had to come off the canvas himself in the sixth, and impressively put Estrada away with a body shot in the seventh to inherit the WBC belt and lineal recognition.

This past November, Rodriguez defended against Pedro Guevara, a former junior flyweight titleholder and longtime contender at 112 and 115. Rodriguez blew through Guevara in three rounds. Rodriguez, a 25-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, is now 21-0 (14 KOs).

If he defeats Cafu this Saturday, Rodriguez will add the WBO title and will head into a planned match with WBA titleholder Martinez on the November 22 show in Riyadh headlined by David Benavidez vs. Anthony Yarde.

And beyond that? Well, boxing seems to be getting ahead of itself, but what boxing fans daydream of isn’t for Rodriguez to finish going for the undisputed championship at 115lbs by taking on IBF titleholder Willibaldo Garcia. Rather, people picture Bam going up to 118lbs to take on unified titleholder Junto Nakatani and/or to go even further north to face undisputed junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue.

Who is Phumelele Cafu?

Phumelele Cafu, 11-0-3 (8 KOs), is a 26-year-old from South Africa who owns the WBO junior bantamweight world title. Cafu earned that title by fighting outside of his home country for the first time as a professional boxer, traveling to Japan last October to challenge Kosei Tanaka as part of a two-day extravaganza of title fights in Tokyo.

Cafu won by the narrowest of split decisions, two judges seeing it 114-113 his way, the other giving Tanaka a 114-113 nod. Cafu’s fifth-round knockdown of Tanaka proved to be the difference.

Cafu isn’t the big name on this show. He’s coming to Texas fully aware that Rodriguez is the star with all the buzz behind him, and plenty of plans ahead of him. But Cafu is used to upsetting the odds and defying expectations, something that predates the victory over Tanaka.

“I was always being written off. I fought Jackson [Chauke, who was 20-1-1] once when I had six fights, and everyone was writing me off,” Cafu recently told BoxingScene’s Tris Dixon. “They never thought I’d beat Jackson. They thought Jackson would destroy me. Guess what? I came there and we fought, and that fight ended up being the Fight of the Year.” 

Cafu-Chauke I, held in March 2022, ended in a draw. Their rematch nine months later resulted in a split decision victory for Cafu.

Aside from boxing’s hardcore, most fans won’t be aware of Cafu. They’re far more knowledgeable about how good Rodriguez is and will make their predictions accordingly. Cafu is intent on proving them wrong once again.

“People thought also with Tanaka, I’m just going there to lose. [...] And guess what? I went in there and became a world champion,” Cafu told Dixon. He soon added: “I'll go there [against Rodriguez] and become a unified champion. So, I’m ready for anything. It doesn't matter what the people think about me.”

What other fights are on the undercard of Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs. Phumelele Cafu?

The co-feature pits undefeated super middleweight Diego Pacheco in what could be a stiff test against once-beaten Trevor McCumby.

Pacheco, 23-0 (18 KOs), is young at 24 years old but ranked by all four sanctioning bodies, including No. 1 with the WBO and No. 3 with the WBC. He still needs more seasoning against better competition, having only recently begun to step up his level of opposition. Pacheco dispatched Maciej Sulecki with body shots in the sixth round last August and won a unanimous decision over the 20-0 Steven Nelson this past January.

McCumby, 28-1 (21 KOs), had been untested himself despite being in the paid ranks since 2010. (He did test positive for a banned performance-enhancing drug in 2017 and spent four and a half years away from the sport between November 2018 and May 2023.) In McCumby’s last outing in September 2024, he impressed in defeat, giving Caleb Plant trouble with his aggression and heavy hands. Plant stopped McCumby in the ninth round, but McCumby showed enough to pique interest about how he and other contenders at 168lbs would fare against each other.

Also on this show: Austin “Ammo” Williams, 18-1 (12 KOs), will face Etinosa Oliha, 21-0 (9 KOs), in an IBF middleweight elimination bout [UPDATE: Oliha is out with an injury, and a new opponent for Williams has not yet been named]. The winner will be in position to challenge IBF/WBO titleholder Janibek Alimkhanuly. Williams has won two straight since getting stopped in the 11th round by Hamzah Sheeraz in June 2024.

A pair of Olympians are scheduled for separate junior middleweight fights on the undercard: Omari Jones, 2-0 (2 KOs), who took home bronze in 2024, will face Alfredo Rodolfo Blanco, 24-14 (11 KOs); and Nishant Dev, 2-0 (1 KO), will meet LaQuan Evans, 5-5 (2 KOs).

The full list of undercard fights can be seen on BoxRec.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.