Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez to Fight Phumelela Cafu in Junior Bantamweight Unification Bout This Summer

Posted on May 1, 2025 by Tom Castaneda

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez is returning to the ring this summer.

The 25-year-old Mexican American professional boxer (21-0, 14 KOs) will face South Africa’s Phumelela Cafu (11-0-3, 8 KOs) in a junior bantamweight unification bout on July 19 at The Star‘s Ford Center in Frisco, Texas.

Rodriguez currently holds the WBC title while Cafu is the WBO 115-pound titleholder.

Fighting out of San Antonio, Rodriguez is a two-division world champion who has actively sought a fight against another champion in the junior bantamweight division.

He captured the WBC title with a 7th-round stoppage of Juan Francisco Estrada last June and had a successful title defense in November when he scored a 3rd-round TKO against Pedro Guevara. “Bam” is ranked No. 7 on ESPN‘s pound-for-pound list and owns wins over Sunny Edwards, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Carlos Cuadras.

He’ll stand opposite of Cafu, who captured the WBO title by upsetting Kosei Tanaka with a split decision last October in Tokyo.

Cafu, 30, was previously linked to a potential showdown with Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzales for his first title defense, but those plans fell through.

Now he will get the opportunity to unify the titles against one of the best fighters in the sport.

The co-main-event on July 19 is a super middleweight showdown between Diego Pacheco (23-0, 18 KOs) and Trevor McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs).

Pacheco, 24, is coming off of a unanimous decision win over Steve Nelson in January. He is ESPN‘s No. 4 super middleweight.

McCumby, 32, hopes to bounce back after suffering the first defeat of his career against Caleb Plant last September.

The fight will be streamed on DAZN.

Gabriela Fundora Remains Undisputed Flyweight Champion with TKO Victory Over Marilyn Badillo

Posted on April 20, 2025 by Tom Castaneda

Gabriela Fundora is keeping her titles…

In a flawless performance, the 23-year-old Mexican American professional boxer retained her undisputed flyweight championship with a seventh-round TKO victory over Marilyn Badillo on Saturday at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.

Fighting for the first time in 2025, Fundora, a southpaw who had a six-inch height advantage and a four-inch reach advantage, had no problem landing her lead jab and lead hook against the shorter Badillo, who employed feints to get inside but couldn’t find the way to shorten the distance.

Badillo had a good Round 4, landing a left uppercut on Fundora and going low to try to get inside, but most of the time, Fundora’s straight left found Badillo’s chin, stopping her attacks. By the end of the round, Badillo had redness under her right eye and a big hematoma on her forehead due to an unintentional headbutt.

After the fight, Fundora said she found her rhythm during the first round. She said she saw Badillo was “doing her ducking thing, but [she was] still always there.”

In the seventh round, Fundora overwhelmed Badillo with a flurry of punches, accentuated by a powerful straight left that forced Badillo to take a knee. Referee Rudy Barragan gave her the count, but Badillo didn’t want to continue.

According to CompuBox, Fundora landed 99 of her power punches compared with only 21 for Badillo.

“I think I’m maturing,” Fundora, from Coachella, California, said of her performance. “I knew the stoppage was going to come. It just again, how I wanted to place it, and I think with this one it was more of a relaxed kind of tempo.”

Fundora (16-0, 8 KOs) came into the bout as ESPN‘s No. 1-ranked flyweight, while Badillo (19-1-1, 3 KOs) was ranked No. 3.

Fundora made history in November by knocking out Gabriela Celeste Alaniz in Round 7 to become boxing’s youngest undisputed champion ever at 22. In that fight, Fundora added the WBO, WBC and WBA women’s flyweight titles to the IBF title she already owned.

Badillo, whose 19-fight winning streak was snapped, had never fought outside of Mexico. This was just her fourth bout at 10 rounds and her first title fight.

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to Fight Jake Paul This June

Posted on April 19, 2025 by Tom Castaneda

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is returning to the ring for a high-profile fight…

Jake Paul (11-1, 7 KOs) will take the next step to becoming a world champion when he faces the 39-year-old former WBC middleweight champion on June 28 at Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Most Valuable Promotions revealed details about the fight to ESPN on Friday.

The 10-round fight, which MVP will co-promote with Oscar De La Hoya‘s Golden Boy Promotions, will be contested at a weight limit of 200 pounds and air on DAZN pay-per-view.

“Five years ago, I stepped into the ring for my pro debut after a single amateur fight, and every fight since has been a step towards becoming world champion. I just defeated the baddest man on the planet, and now I’m going against a former champion who conman Canelo couldn’t finish,” Jake Paul, 28, said in a statement to ESPN.

“Chávez Jr. is Mexican, but I, El Gallo De Dorado, have the will and heart of the great Mexican fighters. On Saturday, June 28, live on DAZN pay-per-view, I will knock out Julio and make Chávez Sr. proud in ways Jr. never has. Another massive event from Most Valuable Promotions, with some Oscar De La Hoya seasoning added to the show. Viva La Puerto Rico.”

The fight announcement comes just months after a proposed fight between Paul and Canelo Alvarez fell apart at the eleventh hour in favor of a four-fight deal with Riyadh Season. Paul then pursued a fight with Gervonta “Tank” Davis. However, Davis’ controversial majority draw against Lamont Roach Jr. in March derailed those plans, as it is now expected that Davis will pursue an immediate rematch with Roach. With two blockbuster showdowns falling apart, Paul turned to a former world champion and the son of a boxing legend in Chavez.

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., left, a former middleweight champion, defeated Uriah Hall by unanimous decision in a cruiserweight bout in July 2024.

“Chavez Jr. has always been on the short list of fighters that Jake Paul has targeted,” MVP co-founder Nakisa Bidarian said to ESPN. “After the Tyson fight, the original plan was to fight Chavez Jr. next. However, the Canelo opportunity presented itself and we paused discussions with Chavez.”

Chavez will be the second former world champion Paul has faced, although the previous champion to lose to the former YouTuber won his first world championship more than a decade before Paul was born. In November 2024, Paul won a unanimous decision against former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, 58, in a record-breaking event on Netflix. Chavez last held a major world title in 2012. Since losing the WBC title to Sergio Martinez in 2012, Chavez’s career has been uneven and inconsistent, with the Mexican going 8-6 after starting with a 46-0-1 record.

Chavez’s performances have tailed off significantly, with a one-sided decision defeat to Alvarez in 2017 and an embarrassing loss to former MMA champion Anderson Silva in 2021. He was last in action on the undercard of Paul’s fight with Mike Perry last July when Chavez outpointed MMA fighter Uriah Hall in a six-round fight. Although Chavez is far from the form he had early in his career, the former champion believes that his issues are behind him and he will be able to turn back “El Gallo.”

“First of all, I will show what I can do now that everything is in the right place in my life – mentally and physically,” Chavez said in a statement. “I feel rejuvenated and 10 years younger. Second, I want to thank MVP for taking the risk of fighting me. Unfortunately for their Problem Child, they’re going to have a big problem this June-one they won’t know how to resolve. Hopefully, when I beat him, people won’t underestimate this win.”

William Zepeda Defeats Tevin Farmer in Quest to Fight WBC World Lightweight Champion Shakur Stevenson

Posted on November 17, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

William Zepeda has made his case for a title shot…

The 28-year-old Mexican boxer edged past Tevin Farmer on Saturday at The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to stay on course for a crack at WBC world lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson in February.

Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs) from San Mateo Atenco, México, won a split decision (95-94, 95-94, 94-95) after recovering from a fourth-round knockdown to land more punches than Farmer and earn the WBC interim belt.

Former IBF world junior lightweight champion Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs), 34, from Philadelphia, floored Zepeda with a left hook in Round 4 and his pressure made it an uncomfortable fight for the 28-year-old Mexican.

It was an entertaining fight, but not the statement Zepeda would have wanted going into a world title fight early next year.

Brandon Figueroa to Fight Stephen Fulton in Featherweight Rematch This December

Posted on October 9, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Brandon Figueroa is heading back to the ring this December…

The 27-year-old Mexican American professional boxer will meet Stephen Fulton in a featherweight rematch on the December 14 Gervonta Davis–Lamont Roach undercard in Houston, per ESPN sources.

When they fought in November 2021, Fulton defeated Figueroa via majority decision in one of the best fights of the year.

That was a 122-pound title unification where both boxers entered the ring as champions. In the aftermath of his loss, Figueroa was adamant the decision was a “robbery.”

Three years later, they’ll meet at 126 pounds as former champions.

Fulton (22-1, 8 KOs) has fought three times since. The 30-year-old from Philadelphia moved up to 126 pounds last month to fight Carlos Castro. He was dropped in Round 5 but emerged with a split-decision victory.

That was Fulton’s first bout since his Round 8 TKO loss last summer in a title unification with Naoya Inoue in Tokyo. Fulton is ESPN’s No. 9 featherweight.

Figueroa (25-1-1, 19 KOs) is ESPN’s No. 4 boxer at 126 pounds. He also competed three times since his loss to Fulton, all of them at 122 pounds.

Figueroa defeated Castro by TKO in Round 6 of their July 2022 fight and also outpointed Mark Magsayo.

Figueroa has held the WBC interim featherweight title since March 2023 and previously the WBC super bantamweight title in 2021 and the WBA super bantamweight title from 2019 to 2021.

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez to Defend WBC Junior Bantamweight Title Against Pedro Guevara in November

Posted on September 20, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez has locked in his next opponent…

The 24-year-old Mexican American boxer, one of boxing’s rising stars, will defend his titles on November 9 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has announced.

Rodriguez (20-0, 13 KOs), who is No. 7 on ESPN‘s pound-for-pound rankings, will defend his WBC junior bantamweight title against Pedro Guevara, in a 12-round bout.

It will be Rodriguez’s first defense of the title, which he won in spectacular fashion by knocking out Juan Francisco Estrada in the seventh round.

Guevara (42-4-1, 22 KOs), a former junior flyweight champion and ESPN‘s No. 7 junior bantamweight, will be fighting for the third time in 2024.

He has won his past two bouts after dropping a close decision to Carlos Cuadras in November 2023.

Maira Moneo to Fight Caroline Dubois in England Next Month

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Maira Moneo is up for a new challenge…

The 31-year-old Uruguayan woman professional boxer and WBC interim world lightweight champion will fight Caroline Dubois at Oakwell Stadium in Barnsley, England, on August 3.

The victor will take a step closer to a shot at the WBC world lightweight title, held by two-weight undisputed champion Katie Taylor of Ireland, who faces Amanda Serrano in a rematch on the undercard of Jack Paul and Mike Tyson‘s fight in Texas on Nov. 15.

Taylor is also undisputed super lightweight champion and will defend those titles against Serrano.

Moneo (14-1, 3 KO), 31, from Montevideo, is more experienced than Dubois and in December 2022 outpointed two-division world champion Erica Anabella Farias.

Her only defeat came by disqualification, due to a clash of heads versus Yanina del Carmen Lescano in 2020.

Dubois (9-0, 5 KOs), 23, of London, has also signed a long-term promotional deal with U.K.-based BOXXER as she targets progressing to a world title shot later this year, or a clash with Taylor in 2025.

Dubois, who turned professional in 2022 after competing at the last Olympics, said: “I’m ready to announce myself on the big stage. I want to be world champion. I want to be fighting for world titles against the likes of [WBO champion] Rhiannon Dixon, [IBF champion] Beatriz Ferreira and [WBC and WBA champion] Taylor. I want to unify the division. I want to be undisputed and then I want to move up in weight.

“Moneo is a fight that can propel me to the next level. She is going to bring that South American mentality, tenacity and energy. She has a lot of experience. She’s going to be aggressive and nonstop punching and I’m ready and I’m excited for that.

“Every time I step in the ring, I want to do damage. I want to excite people. I want people to say: ‘Wow, that Caroline Dubois, she’s something special!’ Whether it’s a knockout or a 10-round beatdown, I want to be the standout performance of the night, and on August 3rd, I’m coming to steal the show.

“After this fight, I will be on a collision course with Katie Taylor. I will be the interim champion, her mandatory and unless she vacates, we’re fighting next.”

It will be a big couple of months for the Dubois family as Caroline’s brother Daniel makes a first defence of the IBF world heavyweight title against English rival Anthony Joshua, the former champion, at Wembley Stadium on Sept. 21.

7-16

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez Knocks Out Juan Francisco Estrada to Win WBC Junior Bantamweight Title

Posted on June 30, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez has a new belt..

The 24-year-old Mexican American professional boxer knocked out Juan Francisco Estrada in the seventh round to win the WBC junior bantamweight title on at the Footprint Center in Phoenix in a candidate for fight of the year.

Rodriguez (20-0, 13 KOs), who entered the fight as a -550 favorite, per ESPN BET, had Estrada in trouble in Round 3 after landing a right uppercut.

Estrada recovered well in the third, but in Round 4, Rodriguez knocked him down with a perfectly thrown left uppercut, straight left combination.

Rodriguez kept landing his punches in the next round, all set up by his lead jab.

Another straight left pushed Estrada to the ropes, and the uppercut and left hand kept landing flush. Rodriguez’s speed and power were superior to Estrada’s.

Though Rodriguez appeared to be in total control, Estrada, 34, dropped him in the sixth round with a straight right hand set up by two lead jabs. Rodriguez recovered well and continued landing his left hand and right uppercut.

With just seconds to go in Round 7, Rodriguez landed a left hook to the body that sent Estrada to the canvas. Estrada was visibly in pain and couldn’t recover in time.

“I got him with a good body shot,” Rodriguez said during the postfight interview. “I saw the way he was rolling on the floor. I knew that was it.

“I thought he was going to get back up, so I was already mentally prepared to go on to the next round, but I mean he stayed down and that was it.”

At the time of the stoppage, Estrada was ahead 57-56 on one of the scorecards, while Rodriguez was up 58-54 on another and the third judge had the fight even.

This was Rodriguez’s first victory of 2024 and the second time he won the WBC belt at 115 pounds. Estrada fought for the first time since his trilogy fight against future Hall of Famer Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez in December 2022, a career-long 18-month layoff.

Estrada (44-4, 28 KOs) was riding an eight-fight winning streak. The last time he lost a fight before Saturday was more than six years ago, a majority decision to Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in February 2018 that he avenged one year later.

Estrada could have one more big fight in him. The future Hall of Famer has a rematch clause and said after the fight that he was going to exercise that option.

“I know the mistakes that I made in there and I want the rematch,” Estrada said. “So we’ll take that rematch and there’s no doubt we’ll win that rematch.”

Rodriguez is knocking at the door of the pound-for-pound top 10 list. He said after the fight he plans to stay at junior bantamweight and try to unify the titles against the winner of the unification fight between Fernando Martinez and Kazuto Ioka on July 7 in Japan.

David Benavidez Defeats Oleksandr Gvozdyk to Claim WBC Interim Light Heavyweight World Title

Posted on June 16, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

David Benavidez is celebrating a unanimous victory…

The 27-year-old Mexican-American professional boxer looked relatively at home in his first appearance at light heavyweight on Saturday night, cruising to a unanimous decision over Oleksandr Gvozdyk at the MGM Grand.

Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) moved up to 175 pounds for the first time after his repeated efforts to entice undisputed super middleweight champ Canelo Alvarez into a bout fell short.

He beat Gvozdyk (20-2, 16 KOs) comfortably, with the judges favoring Benavidez 119-109, 117-111 and 116-112, and claimed a WBC interim world title in the victory.

“I think it’s a 7 out of 10, to be honest,” Benavidez said when asked to grade his performance. “Oleksandr is a great fighter. It’s no wonder he’s a former champion, a former Olympian.”

Benavidez revealed that he suffered a facial cut and torn tendon in his right hand before the fight. It didn’t really show in his performance, as he landed 223 punches compared with 163 for Gvozdyk, according to CompuBox. One criticism of the performance might have been a lack of power. He never had Gvozdyk in true trouble, despite teeing off on him multiple times throughout the 12 rounds.

Whether Benavidez’s power fully translates to 175 pounds will likely be a topic of discussion if he ever moves on to potentially marquee fights against titleholders Artur Beterbiev or Dmitry Bivol.

For now, Benavidez said he will look at both light heavyweight and his natural weight class of super middleweight. He said his fight night weight Saturday was 189 pounds.

“We’re still looking to go down to 168 to fight for the title,” he said. “If we’re going to get Canelo or if they’re going to vacate it, I would like to win it one more time.”

Some of Benavidez’s best work came in the first half of the fight. He had a lot of success with a looping left hook, which looked like it could turn into a fight-ending shot in the early rounds before Gvozdyk made some adjustments. Benavidez constantly pressured Gvozdyk backward and highlighted some of his work with shots to the body.

Gvozdyk, a 2012 Olympic bronze medalist, weathered the storm well, especially for a 37-year-old who retired from boxing in 2019 before returning to the sport last year. Gvozdyk even mounted a bit of a comeback in the later rounds and opened a small cut over Benavidez’s left eye.

Despite some late success, Gvozdyk routinely found himself on the back foot against his advancing opponent. Benavidez continued to look for the finish in the later rounds, but Gvozdyk ate his best shots.

Saturday’s bout was Benavidez’s first of 2024. He could be a candidate for the winner of an October 12 undisputed light heavyweight championship bout between Beterbiev and Bivol.

Sebastian Fundora to Defend WBC/WBO Belts Against Errol Spence Jr. in October

Posted on May 25, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Sebastian Fundora has secured his next opponent.

The 26-year-old Mexican American professional boxer and unified light middleweight champion and Errol Spence Jr. have agreed to a deal for a junior middleweight title fight in Dallas this October, per ESPN.

Fundora will defend his WBC and WBO belts, which he won in a split-decision upset over Tim Tszyu in March.

PBC‘s hope is to stage the Prime Video PPV event at AT&T Stadium if the finalized date fits into the Dallas Cowboys‘ home schedule.

Spence, 34, has competed there twice, with wins over Mikey Garcia and Yordenis Ugas.

Following Fundora’s victory against Tszyu, Spence stepped into the ring and called him out, saying, “It’s time to get it on. He got a pretty good height, but we’ll see. We’ll break him down like we always do.”

Indeed, Fundora possesses uncanny height for a 154-pounder at 6-foot-5½ with an 80-inch reach. The 26-year-old’s first title victory came on the heels of his lone defeat, a seventh-round KO loss to Brian Mendoza in one of 2023’s most surprising results.

One year later, Fundora (21-1-1, 14 KOs) is ESPN‘s top junior middleweight after he replaced the injured Keith Thurman on 11 days’ notice to outlast Tszyu.

Known as “The Towering Inferno,” Fundora and his sister Gabriela are the first brother and sister to be full-fledged champions in boxing history.

Spence, meanwhile, will make his 154-pound debut after July’s ninth-round TKO loss to Terence Crawford for the undisputed welterweight championship. Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) was a mainstay of ESPN‘s pound-for-pound list before the setback.

He recently parted ways with Derrick James, who trained him since his amateur days that culminated in an Olympic run at the 2012 London Games.

Spence and James have sued each other surrounding a disagreement over money.

Hispanically Yours

Celebrating the Latino Influence

Tag Archives: WBC