SAN ANTONIO — Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez welcomed the downtime leading into his most recent outing.
Another lengthy break is now in his future, just not on his terms.
The gifted 23-year-old boxer is confirmed to have suffered a fractured jaw in his WBO flyweight title winning effort over Mexico’s Cristian Gonzalez. Rodriguez was taken to the hospital immediately after his brief post-fight interview following the win over Gonzalez (15-2, 6KOs) in Saturday’s DAZN headliner from Boeing Center at Tech Port in his San Antonio hometown.
“Went through hell for this belt,” Rodriguez stated Sunday morning after returning home from an overnight visit at a nearby hospital. “A lot of people would have quit after fracturing their jaw but I’ve never been one of those.
“Requiring surgery early this week. It’s all good, though; ima 2x world champion.”
Rodriguez (18-0, 11KOs) became San Antonio’s first-ever multi-division titlist with the win on Saturday. He is also the sport’s youngest active two-division title claimant. The fear came a year after he became the first 2000-born fighter to win a major title when he claimed the WBC junior bantamweight title in a win over former champ Carlos Cuadras last February in Phoenix, Arizona.
The title opportunity last year came on short notice for Rodriguez, though it proved to be well worth the risk. He made two successful defenses for three total title fights in a seven-month span before shutting everything down for the rest of the year to reload and drop down to flyweight for a second title run.
His latest hometown headliner on Saturday proved historic though at a cost. He believed to have fractured his jaw midway through his otherwise lopsided win over Gonzalez.
“I guess my mouth was open and I just got caught,” Rodriguez theorized after the fight. “This sh!t hurts. I can barely talk through this sh!t.”
For the time being, he also can’t fight through the recovery period. It delays a pre-fight vision to fully unify the division, as Boxing Scene previously confirmed plans for a targeted July unification bout between Rodriguez and unbeaten IBF flyweight champ Sunny Edwards (19-0, 4KOs).
Matchroom Boxing head Eddie Hearn confirmed to Boxing Scene that the likely reset will have Edwards face WBC Julio Cesar Martinez, who first defends his belt on the May 6 undercard of superstar stablemate Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, or WBA titlist Artem Dalakian.
“We have to keep Sunny active, we just signed him,” said Hearn. “It’s unfortunate, and we wish Bam all the best. The plan has always been one champion and that’s still the goal for Bam Rodriguez. Obviously, this delays things for him so we have to figure out how to move things along and get him right back in the mix once he’s healthy and ready to fight again.”
It’s a shared vision by the sport’s youngest champ, who still targets Edwards as his next best option whenever he’s cleared to return.
“That’s the only option,” Rodriguez emphatically stated. “I see he’s been talking so let’s make it happen.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox