Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez defends his WBC flyweight title against WBO champion, Phumelela Cafu in a unification clash at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas on Saturday.
DAZN televise Rodriguez vs Cafu live, while Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom promote.
Rodriguez (21-0, 14 KOs) is quickly rising in the pound-for-pound ranks, and emerged in February 2022, when he took a points win against Carlos Cuadras to become WBC super flyweight champion.
After two defences, ‘Bam’ would then drop back down to his natural weight of flyweight, and took the WBO title in April 2023 by handily outscoring Cristian Hernandez.
The San Antonio native would then add the IBF belt in a masterful ninth-round retirement of Sunny Edwards, and would move back up to super flyweight, where in a thriller, he traded knockdowns with Juan Francisco Estrada, before scoring a seventh-round knockout to defend his WBC title.
The 25-year-old was last out in November, stopping Pedro Guevara in three and should he emerge victorious on Saturday, he is already scheduled for another unification showdown against WBA titlist, Fernando Martinez on November 22 in Riyadh.
Cafu (11-0-3, 8 KOs) is a wise opponent for Rodriguez to unify against, with the South African only having limited world championship experience.
After three draws in his first seven fights, Cafu has won his last seven on the spin, and travelled to Japan to win the WBO title, taking a razor-thin split decision against Kosei Tanaka.
Prediction: Rodriguez should be levels above his opponent in this one, and I expect him to secure another belt with a stoppage in the middle to late rounds.
Pacheco meets McCumby
The undercard sees another rising star in action, as Diego Pacheco takes on Trevor McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs) over a scheduled 12 rounds at super middleweight.
Pacheco (23-0, 18 KOs) ended the unbeaten record of Steven Nelson in his last outing, taking a points win by a wide margin, while McCumby suffered a first professional defeat, stopped in nine by Caleb Plant after decking the former world champion earlier in the contest.
Prediction: Pacheco will be tested by McCumby, but can take victory clearly on the scorecards.
Williams returns
The third and final 12-rounder is at middleweight, where Austin ‘Ammo’ Williams (18-1, 12 KOs) should secure a points win against the unbeaten Mexican, Ivan Vazquez (11-0-2, 8 KOs).
Remaining Undercard
In super welterweight six-rounders, Pablo Valdez (9-0, 8 KOs) can win early against Robert Redmond Jr (8-2-2, 6 KOs) and Omari Jones (2-0, 2 KOs) can do the same against Alfredo Rodolfo Blanco (24-14, 11 KOs).
Nishant Dev (2-0, 1 KOs) should be an early winner against LaQuan Evans (5-5, 2 KOs).
View this post on Instagram
A four-rounder rounds off the card, and Hector Beltran (2-0, 2 KOs) can halt Edgar Gutierrez (3-3, 2 KOs) early in their super welterweight bout.
