When fight night lands on July 19, casual fans will tune in to 46-year-old legend Manny Pacquiao chasing one last welterweight crown against Mario Barrios Jr. in Las Vegas - but hardcore eyes will also drift to Dallas, where 25-year-old southpaw Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez aims to unify junior-bantamweight titles against unbeaten Phumelela Cafu. The split-screen coincidence feels symbolic: Pacquiao, an eight-division icon, and Bam, a two-division prodigy talking openly about climbing at least six weight classes before he’s done.
Rodriguez already owns the WBC belt at 115 lbs and sees Thursday’s WBO strap as step two of a larger “Pacquiao road map.” Trainer Robert Garcia outlines the plan: finish business with Cafu, pursue WBA king “Puma” Martinez for full unification, then rise to bantamweight in 2026. From there Bam’s crosshairs fix on undisputed junior-feather champion Naoya Inoue, echoing Pac-Man’s leapfrog mentality from flyweight to featherweight superstardom two decades ago.
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What fuels the comparison is style as much as ambition. Like a prime Pacquiao, Rodriguez pairs blurring hand speed with fight-ending power—qualities that toppled Juan Francisco Estrada last year and could let him scale weights without sacrificing danger. Even his mindset mirrors the Filipino great’s humility-meets-hunger; Bam frets over defensive lapses despite knockout wins and reminds himself that “everything can be taken away in seconds.”
First, though, he must tame Cafu, a heavy-handed South African fresh off upsetting Kosei Tanaka in Japan. Win convincingly and Bam not only locks another belt but further legitimizes talk of future Superfights, perhaps even sharing a bill with Pacquiao’s swan song as early as September, courtesy of promoter Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing debut.
Don't miss Bam vs. Cafu event.
Image Credit: Matchroom Boxing