‘I think 118 will be our next move’: Robert Garcia talks future prospects for ‘Bam’ Rodriguez
Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez has a fight against an unheralded opponent this weekend, as his trainer talks about where his motivations are at the moment.
Trainer Robert Garcia takes some time to chat with Fight Hype about a number of topics including Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez’s upcoming fight this weekend in Philadelphia, their future plans, what comes next for Vergil Ortiz, and why he thinks Terence Crawford could retire if he doesn’t get a fight against Canelo. Check out some excerpts from Garcia below.
Garcia on his expectations for Bam in his upcoming fight this weekend
“Bam gets motivated when he’s fighting a challenge, a real challenge. That’s when he performs his best. This fight wasn’t the fight that we expected, obviously. We were scheduled to fight ‘Gallo’ Estrada again but ‘Gallo’ decided to move up, move up in weight, which is fine also.
“So we have to fight a mandatory, that’s our mandatory. Tough guy. Guevara is a tough guy, he’s a former champion, he’s in there to do what nobody else has done and he’s also Mexican so he wants to prove that he’s up there with all the best Mexicans in the world. So we’re up for a challenge also. Bam’s training hard, he’s dedicated, he’s in shape.”
On what fight he thinks can make Bam a breakthrough superstar in the sport
“I think at 115 right now, a unification fight. Maybe ‘Puma’ Martinez is probably the best out there, the biggest name out there unless in December he loses to Ioka. Then against Ioka, maybe in Japan. That’s probably the biggest fight out there for Bam.
“Bam would love to be undisputed at the division but we have to see if the champions are available. If nothing happens at 115 then it’ll be 118. He’s not going to just defend his belts against nobodies, against guys that don’t mean much for him. He wants to challenge himself, he does challenge himself. He wants the big challenges so I think 118 will be our next move.”
On if he thinks Bam could ever possibly move up to face Naoya Inoue at 122
“It’s definitely possible. But by the time Bam’s at 122, I think it’ll be two or three years from now. I don’t know if Inoue will be at 122, he might be at 130 by that time. We never know. But if he is, Bam wants those challenges.”
On if Vergil Ortiz could fight Jaron Ennis
“Look, whenever that’s brought up, yeah, it’s a fight that eventually one day could happen but it’s not like something that we’re already working out or we’re already negotiating, none of that. ‘Boots’ has a fight coming up next week, he’s still champion at welterweight. When he moves up to 154, if he does soon, then it might be getting closer to where we could say ‘ok now we’re even closer’ because now they’re both fighting at 154. But as of right now, it’s just rumors.”
On whether Ortiz could fight Crawford at 154
“Crawford’s a smart man. He’s already accomplished, he already did a lot. He doesn’t need to challenge himself, he doesn’t need to prove nobody anything. I’ve talked to him personally and my feeling is he wants that big fight against Canelo and if he doesn’t get that, he might never fight again.
“He doesn’t need anybody to push him to take a challenge, that he doesn’t need to prove anything anymore. He’s already accomplished it. I don’t see him pleasing the fans just because they’re telling him he needs to fight this guy, he needs to fight that guy. He’s going to go out there to look for the biggest fight and if not, enjoy his life.”