Eddie Hearn is not just the man in charge at Matchroom Boxing, but he appears to be an astute fight fan as well. Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez won a twelve-round unanimous decision over Cristian Gonzalez, to win the vacant WBO flyweight title, last Saturday, April 8th, but not without consequence.
After the fight, it was revealed that Rodriguez fought from round six onward with a broken jaw. His Promoter, Eddie Hearn spoke to the media about the future of Rodriguez.
Now is the waiting game as “Bam” Rodriguez was in the running for being the Fighter of the Year in 2022, and now fight fans are simply hoping to see him returning in 2023. Though it appears Sunny Edwards, the IBF flyweight world champion, and someone who wants to fight “Bam” Rodriguez
“We need to see what the hospital says and if [Bam] needs an operation,” said Hearn about the return of “Bam” Rodriguez. “I heard in the eleventh round that he broke his jaw from the corner. So I just went up to him and said did you break your jaw, and he was like ‘yeah’, and obviously in the interview, he couldn’t really talk.”
As for Edwards, it appears the promotion will explore other options as Rodriguez appears to be out of action for at the very least the fall, if not much longer than that.
“They were quite calm about it really,” said Hearn when talking about Bam Rodriguez and his team, including his coach Robert Garcia after the fight. “That is the fight [Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs Sunny Edwards]. You can’t keep boxing at this level where you are as good as Jesse you need to test yourself, but everything is going to hinge on what the hospital says really, but [Bam] wants to go straight into that Sunny Edwards fight, [and] Sunny needs to fight July [at] the latest. [It is very unlikely] it will be Jesse [who Edwards fights in the summer], we will probably look at Julio Cesar Martinez and try to make that for the unification for Sunny Edwards."
