The Alamo City's favorite son Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez will return home to San Antonio and look to become a multi-division world champion on Saturday, April 8th.
Rodriguez 17-0 (11) will take on Cristian Gonzalez for the WBO's vacant flyweight title. The explosive Texan captured the 115-pound world title less than a year ago when he took on Carlos Cuadras for the vacant WBC title on six days' notice. Rodriguez moved up two weight classes and handed in a spectacular performance that put everyone from 108 to 118 on notice. He followed that up with two
successful title defenses to put together a Fighter of The Year type year for 2022.
Cristian Gonzalez is a 23-year-old, somewhat unknown prospect from Mexico. He sports a 15-1 (5) record. His best win of note came back in June of 2021 when he outpointed Saul Juarez over ten competitive rounds in Mexico City. He last fought in March of 2022 and stopped Juan Alejo Zuniga in the first round.
The bout is held for the vacant WBO 112-pound world title which was vacated by Junto Nakatani in late 2022 to move up to 115 pounds. Nakatani won the belt in November of 2020 by stopping Giemel Magramo in eight rounds and would successfully defend it twice before relinquishing it. The venue for the bout has not yet been confirmed. However, Rodriguez fought in his home city last summer at a packed-out Tech Port Arena, which was an ideal location.