Pound-for-pound: ‘Bam’ Rodriguez has earned his way into Top 15

Michael Rosenthal

Thu, Dec 21, 2023, 1:27 PM·8 min read

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez appears to have won over virtually everyone.

The now-unified 112-pound champion dismantled previously unbeaten technician Sunny Edwards on Saturday in Glendale, Arizona, forcing the Londoner’s cornermen to end the assault after nine rounds.

The victory was his third over an elite opponent in his past five fights, including a decision over veteran Carlos Cuadras to win a vacant title at 115 and a knockout of possible future Hall of Famer Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.

He also defeated Cristian Gonzalez by a one-sided decision even though he fought almost the entire bout with a broken jaw, proving he’s also as tough as anyone in the sport.

That level of success, his perfect record and “A” grades on the eye test has a lot of discerning observers using the hyphenated compound word starting with the letter “P” to describe the 23-year-old Texan: pound-for-pound.

Rodriguez (19-0, 12 KOs) entered his fight with Edwards as an Honorable Mention on Boxing Junkie’s list, as did the loser. What now for one of the sport’s fastest rising young stars?

Remember: There were some damn good fighters sitting directly above him in the Top 15 going into his fight against Edwards, including Nos. 11 through 15 Errol Spence, Vasiliy Lomachenko, Artur Beterbiev, Shakur Stevenson and David Benavidez.

In the end we decided that Rodriguez had to leap frog all of the above to No. 11, directly below another hot commodity, No. 10 Devin Haney.

And Rodriguez’s rapid rise might not stop there. He has said he plans to move back up to 115, where he would like to fight No. 5-ranked Juan Francisco Estrada. That matchup would give him another opportunity to surge farther up the list.

The fact Spence, Lomachenko, Beterbiev and Steveson fell one notch each (to Nos. 12, 13, 14 and 15) didn’t give us much pause. Benavidez slipping out of the Top 15 did.

Benavidez had just cracked the Top 15 after his sensational sixth-round knockout of Demetrius Andrade on Nov. 25, a victory that unscored the 27-year-old’s place among the best in the business.

Alas, he sat at No. 15 going into the weekend, meaning Rodriguez’s ascension dropped him back down to Honorable Mention for the time being. Consider him No. 16 for all intents and purposes.

And his fate will be in his own hands if he gets the matchup he wants in the spring, one with No. 6 Canelo Alvarez. If Benavidez gets that fight and wins – particularly if it’s convincing — he’ll have an excellent chance of entering the coveted Top 10.

One more bit of business: Edwards falls off the list entirely after his one-sided setback, which created a new opening.

It was filled by 140-pound titleholder Teofimo Lopez Jr., who re-enters the Boxing Junkie list after his impressive unanimous decision victory over previously unbeaten Josh Taylor to claim his belt in June.

Lopez now has victories over Lomachenko and Taylor in his last five fights. And while he lost a decision and his earlier titles in an upset against George Kambosos Jr. he did so with a dangerous condition in which air was present between his lungs.

Next pound-for-pounder up: No. 4 Dmitry Bivol is scheduled to defend his 175-pound title against Lyndon Arthur on Dec. 23 in Saudi Arabia.

Here’s what the list looks like at the moment:

BOXING JUNKIE
POUND-FOR-POUND

Terence Crawford – No fight scheduled.
Naoya Inoue – Scheduled to face fellow titleholder Marlon Tapales for the undisputed 122-pound championship on Dec. 26 in Japan.
Oleksandr Usyk – Scheduled to face fellow titleholder and No. 9 Tyson Fury for the undisputed heavyweight championship on Feb. 17 in Saudi Arabia.
Dmitry Bivol– Scheduled to defend his 175-pound title against Lyndon Arthur on Dec. 23 in Saudi Arabia.
Juan Francisco Estrada – No fight scheduled.
Canelo Alvarez– No fight scheduled.
Jermell Charlo – No fight scheduled.
Gervonta Davis – No fight scheduled.
Tyson Fury – Scheduled to face fellow titleholder and No. 3 Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship on Feb. 17 in Saudi Arabia.
Devin Haney– No fight scheduled.
Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez – No fight scheduled.
Errol Spence Jr. – No fight scheduled.
Vasiliy Lomachenko – No fight scheduled.
Artur Beterbiev – Scheduled to defend his 175-pound titles against Callum Smith on Jan. 13 in Quebec City, Canada.
Shakur Stevenson– No fight scheduled.

Honorable mention (alphabetical order): David Benavidez (no fight scheduled); Jermall Charlo (no fight scheduled); Roman Gonzalez (no fight scheduled); Kazuto Ioka (scheduled to defend his 115-pound title against Josber Perez on New Year’s Eve in Japan); Teofimo Lopez (no fight scheduled).