Bam Beats Vargas By KO; Responds To Calls To Face Inoue Next!

Jesse Rodriguez Stops Vargas; Hearn Names Chispa Medina and Inoue as Options

In his latest tour of duty, the exciting Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (24-0, 17 KO’s) picked up his most recent knockout in his third weight class. In this debut at bantamweight, Rodriguez stopped Antonio Vargas (19-2, 11 KO’s) with a stiff, straight left down the pipe in the sixth round that left him sprawled out in the ring. Along with his scalp, Bam collected Vargas’s WBA bantamweight title with the spoils of war.

To date, Bam has held titles at flyweight, super flyweight and now bantamweight. If Rodriguez was to indulge a slew of boxing fans, his next bout would see him jump yet another division. This would be done in pursuit of undisputed super bantamweight champion Naoya “Monster” Inoue (33-0, 27 KO’s).

CALLS FOR A SUPER BANTAMWEIGHT BRAWL

There has been a great deal of speculative talk surrounding this potential clash, heading into Bam’s duel with Vargas. Naturally, once Vargas had been vanquished, the post-fight conversation near instantaneously pivoted to Rodriguez’s thoughts on the Inoue clash. Once put on the spot, Rodriguez neither chased nor rejected the prizefight. Instead, he opted to use the generic whatever-my-team-decides response.

“I’m ready for whoever, whenever…Whoever they say, throw them in front of me and I say ‘yes’. Eddie knows that my team knows that.”

Bam’s Matchroom Boxing promoter, Eddie Hearn remained rather noncommittal on the matter as well. While Hearn did not shut down the notion of taking the Inoue scrap next, he said that he would have to be diplomatic about the selection. Going a step further, Hearn also tossed out the name of WBO bantamweight champion Christian “Chispa” Medina (27-4, 19 KO’s).

“My response is to speak to Robert Garcia and Bam. That’s one fight at 118 pounds. We also got Chispa Medina, that’s a big unification fight to be made between the two of them.”

Considering the dual reluctance of either Bam or Hearn to clearly call out their desire for Inoue next, it should not be a terrible surprise to anyone if we hear that Rodriguez versus Medina is the next duel on the docket. Yet, let’s just wait and see what is next for the heavy-handed three-division champion!

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