Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs Phumelele Cafu WBC special fight preview
The Bamming Truth By James Blears
An intriguing interwoven, mesh and clash of styles, when WBC super-flyweight Champion Jesse ‘’Bam’’ Rodriguez takes on WBO Champion Phumelele Cafu on Saturday July 19th at the Ford Center at Star Frisco in Texas.
It`s hotshot against longshot, but Phumelele, from South Africa who`s fought most of his battles in East London, has already confounded and contradicted the critics. Venturing outside his homeland for the first time, he handily defeated then champion Kosei Tanaka last October in for him, the hinterland of the Ariake Arena, Koto-Ku, Tokyo, knocking him down with a peach of a counter right in round five and going on to win by a hard-earned, but well deserved SD victory. Kosei was a four- division champion. The magnitude of this victory was no fluke.
Phumelele who was born in the village of Duncan, in the Eastern Cape and lives there to this day, has already earned himself a place in history with his melodic fists. The lilt of the Paul Simon Song entitled Duncan, blasts forth with the line: ‘’Even now the sweet memory lingers. I was playing my guitar under the stars, just thanking The Lord for my fingers.’’
Phumelele audaciously but astutely, logically and calmly reasons: ‘’People think Jessie is a bogeyman. But no one is unbeatable. I`ll prove them wrong and I`ll be king of this division.’’
His coach Colin ‘’Nomakanjani’’ Nathan reasons: ‘’Jessie is accurate and he has good defence.’’ And Plumelele chips in, chiming with adroit timing: ‘’But I`m expecting him to bring it to me, because he doesn`t seem comfortable going backwards.
‘’I`m so happy. This is amazing. I never thought one day I would get to unify the titles. It doesn`t get any bigger than this,’’ noting: ‘’On fight night, I`ll be on song.’’
Referring to Phumelele`s surprise victory in Japan, Jessie who is the Pride of San Antonio, plainly states: ‘’I`m a different fighter. He won`t be able to do the same to me. These are the kind of fights which motivate me to my full potential and make me prepare ten times harder. I can`t wait to fight in front of my home State fans. These type of fights, bring out the very best in me.’’
Two fights ago, Phumelele won the vacant IBF international super-flyweight title over Genisis Libranza by UD in South Africa. His breakout fight came in Japan against Superstar Kosei Tanaka, confounding the odds. He`s a good boxer and a particularly clever, patient and cunning counter puncher, who will be looking to spear and skewer an incoming Bam, punishing any carless, flailing mistake. Curb your enthusiasm?
This happened, albeit briefly, when Bam took on and stopped Juan Francisco ‘’Gallo’’ Estrada for the WBC title at the Footprint Center. He dropped Gallo in round four, but Gallo retaliated, dropping plus leaving a handprint on him in round six, before he composed himself and took out Gallo with a hellacious body shot one round later, and the older man who hadn`t fought in eighteen months, prior to this, was unable to beat the count.
Every time I look at the deceptively mild bespectacled youthful countenance of Jessie James Rodriguez Franco, I`m reminded of Dexter Riley from the film The Computer Wore Tennis shoes. But Jessie doesn`t need a jolt of lighting to imbue him with the precision of computer input calculation. He`s a gifted natural and possesses inborn God granted power. He`s also adapt at successful calculated risk taking, and as hard as nails when the going gets tough.
Opportunity came knocking early in his career, when he was on the undercard of Cuadras Vs Sor Rungvisai. He was supposed to be contesting the WBC USNBC flyweight title against Fernando Diaz. When Srisaket withdrew at short notice due to illness, Jessie jumped at the chance and waded in, surgically knocking the ‘’Medicine Man’’ down in round three with a right uppercut and dominating him to win a superb UD, to become the youngest world champion, at that time.
He then stopped Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in round eight, defeated Israel Gonzalez by UD, and vacated to go back to flyweight. His biggest and most painful test of grit and resolve, came when suffering a broken jaw in round six against Cristian Gonzalez for the vacant WBO flyweight title, which Junto ‘’Big Bang’’ Nakatani had vacated to move up in weight.
Another impactful performance to knock down Sunny Edwards in the ninth and stop him in the same round, fracturing an orbital bone earlier in the fight, so the brave Sunny was seeing two of him. In so doing, Jessie added the IBF version of the flyweight Championship to his WBO version. Then onwards and upwards, to super-flyweight, dispatching WBC Champion Gallo Estrada, followed by a straightforward third round TKO of WBC Interim Champion Pedro ‘’Pedrin’’ Guevara, via two knockdowns in that doleful round. Amazingly and impressively he`s accomplished all of this and he`s still twenty- five years young. The best is surely yet to come.
Phumelele is five years older and although he is two inches taller, standing five feet six, his reach of sixty- four inches is three inches less than that of Jessie. His undefeated record is eleven wins, including eight KO`s and three draws. Jessie is 21-0, 14 KO`s.
Whoever wins this Unification will then move to take on the other champions in a quest to become Undisputed. Jessie muses and enthuses: ‘’Just to have all of the belts and be Undisputed, would mean so much to me. This is the first step.’’
As the proverb goes: ‘’The most important part of a journey is its first step.’’ Standing in the middle of the highway plum in his way, is Phumelele Cafu, who is determined to prevent him achieving: ‘’My way.’’
So, it`s going to be a freshet in Frisco. The moment of ‘’Truth’’ for Phumelele, pitting himself against the might of southpaw Bam.
Tale of the Tape
JESSE “Bam” RODRIGUEZ (USA)
WBC Super Flyweight World Champion, 4th Defense
Age: 25
DOB: January 20, 2000
Residence, birthplace: San Antonio, Texas
Record: 21-0, 14 KOs
Total rounds: 113
World championship fights: 7-0, 4 KOs
Height: 5’4” – 163cm
Reach: 67” – 170cm
Stance: Left-handed
Manager, trainer: Robert Garcia
PHUMELELA “The Truth” CAFU (South Africa)
WBO Super Flyweight World Champion
Age: 26
Date of birth: July 29, 1998
Residence, birthplace: Duncan Village, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Record: 11-0-3, 8 KOs
Total rounds: 85
World championship fights: 1-0, 0 KOs
Height: 5’6” – 168cm
Reach: 64” – 163cm
Stance: Left-handed
Manager, trainer: Colin Nathan
WBC Super-flyweight Top 10 Champions
1. Gilberto Roman (Mexico)
2. Santos Laciar (Argentina)
3. Jiro Watanabe (Japan)
4. Chulho Kim (Korea)
5. Cristian Mijares (Mexico)
6. Gerry Peñalosa (Philippines)
7. Sungkil Moon (Korea)
8. Rafael Orono (Venezuela)
9. Carlos Cuadras (Mexico)
10. Jose Luis Bueno (Mexico)
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