Last year was the rise to stardom for Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez as he defeated junior bantamweight legends such as Carlos Cuadras and stopped former world champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. It was the makings of a Cinderella story in boxing the one we all know and love.
Rodriguez to start 2023 got to headline a card in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas, as Rodriguez won the WBO flyweight world title, but now Rodriguez is facing adversity once again. In the fight, he suffered a broken jaw and now will have to recover from one of the worst injuries in all of the sports.
Rodriguez was as we previously have written about set to face Sunny Edwards this summer. With the jaw injury, it is uncertain if Rodriguez returns in 2023, given the severity of his injury. After the fight, Rodriguez recalled what happened.
“[expletive] hurts, I can barely talk right now,” said the man known as “Bam”. “I guess, I got caught with my mouth open and cracked my [expletive].”
Rodriguez, who was touted to stop Cristian Gonzalez, as Rodrigeuz seemed annoyed and peeved by the avoidant style of Gonzalez. This now marks the second fight in a row in which “Bam” Rodriguez has been rather irritated by the movement of a boxer he is facing as on the Canelo versus Golovkin III undercard, Israel Gonzalez also gave Rodriguez an honest fight.
“[Gonzalez] didn’t [want to] engage in the fight, kept moving,” furthered Rodriguez. “But, that is boxing, you have to take any style that is given to you and make sure you get the [win].”