After stopping Cafu to unify titles, 'Bam' can look ahead to Martinez
Three-belt junior bantamweight unification fight was already booked for Nov. 22 pending his impressive victory on Saturday night
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Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez didn’t mean any disrespect to Phumelele Cafu when his next fight was announced a couple of weeks before they squared off on Saturday night at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.
Rodriguez also said that just because his next fight against Fernando “Puma” Martinez was already lined up, he did not feel additional pressure — even though to make that next fight a reality he needed to beat Cafu.
Rodriguez did just that and did it in style, breaking down Cafu and knocking him out in the 10th round to retain the lineal/WBC junior bantamweight title and take the WBO title from Cafu in their unification fight that headlined the Matchroom Boxing card on DAZN.
“That wasn’t my idea to be honest,” Rodriguez said of the Martinez bout being announced before he beat Cafu. “I knew the fight was going to happen. I agreed to it. I just didn’t like that it was announced before I fought Cafu.
“I thought that was a little disrespectful to him and his team. But it was nothing on our end, and it didn’t add any pressure as I already knew I had to get the job done.”
A couple of weeks before Rodriguez beat Cafu, Turki Alalshikh announced that, pending a Rodriguez victory, he would fight WBA titlist Martinez in a three-belt unification fight as part of a loaded Riyadh Season card on Nov. 22 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.