{"id":157506,"date":"2025-07-16T13:32:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T19:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/wbc-special-preview-rodriguez-vs-cafu\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T13:44:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T19:44:56","slug":"wbc-special-preview-rodriguez-vs-cafu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wbc-special-preview-rodriguez-vs-cafu\/","title":{"rendered":"WBC Special Preview: Rodriguez vs Cafu"},"content":{"rendered":"

WBC Special Preview: Rodriguez vs Cafu<\/strong><\/h2>\n

WBC STATISTICS<\/strong><\/h2>\n

WBC Super Flyweight World Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n

July 19, 2025 \/ Frisco, Texas \/ The Ford Center at The Star<\/p>\n

MATCHROOM BOXING PRESENTS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

JESSE \u201cBam\u201d RODRIGUEZ (USA)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00b7 WBC Super Flyweight World Champion (2-time), 4th Defense<\/p>\n

Age: 25 \/ Date of birth: January 20, 2000<\/p>\n

Residence, birthplace: San Antonio, Texas<\/p>\n

Record: 21-0, 14 KOs \/ Total rounds: 113 \/ World championship fights: 7-0, 4 KOs<\/p>\n

Height: 5\u20194\u201d \u2013 163cm \/ Reach: 67\u201d \u2013 170cm \/ Stance: Left-handed<\/p>\n

Manager, trainer: Robert Garcia<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PHUMELELA \u201cThe Truth\u201d CAFU (South Africa)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00b7 WBO Super Flyweight World Champion<\/p>\n

Age: 26 \/ Date of birth: July 29, 1998<\/p>\n

Residence, birthplace: Duncan Village, Eastern Cape, South Africa<\/p>\n

Record: 11-0-3, 8 KOs \/ Total rounds: 85 \/ World championship fights: 1-0, 0 KOs<\/p>\n

Height: 5\u20196\u201d \u2013 168cm \/ Reach: 64\u201d \u2013 163cm \/ Stance: Left-handed<\/p>\n

Manager, trainer: Colin Nathan<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

WBC SUPER FLYWEIGHT WORLD CHAMPIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Rafael Orono (Venezuela) 1980 \u2013 1981<\/p>\n

2. Chulho Kim (Korea) 1981 \u2013 1982<\/p>\n

3. Rafael Orono (Venezuela) 1982 \u2013 1983*<\/p>\n

4. Payao Pooltarat (+) (Thai) 1983 \u2013 1984<\/p>\n

5. Jiro Watanabe (Japan) 1984 \u2013 1986<\/p>\n

6. Gilberto Roman (+) (Mexico) 1986 \u2013 1987<\/p>\n

7. Santos Laciar (Argentina) 1987<\/p>\n

8. Jose Bebis Rojas (Colombia) 1987 \u2013 1988<\/p>\n

9. Gilberto Roman (+) (Mex) 1988 \u2013 1989*<\/p>\n

10. Nana Konadu (Ghana) 1989 \u2013 1990<\/p>\n

11. Sungkil Moon (Korea) 1990 \u2013 1993<\/p>\n

12. Jose Luis Bueno (Mexico) 1993 \u2013 1994<\/p>\n

13. Hiroshi Kawashima (Japan) 1994 \u2013 1997<\/p>\n

14. Gerry Pe\u00f1alosa (Phil) 1997 \u2013 1998<\/p>\n

15. Injoo Cho (Korea) 1998 \u2013 2000<\/p>\n

16. Masamori Tokuyama (Jap) 2000 \u2013 2004<\/p>\n

17. Katsushige Kawashima (Jap) 2004 \u2013 2005<\/p>\n

18. Masamori Tokuyama (Jap) 2005 \u2013 2006 *<\/p>\n

19. Cristian Mijares (Mexico) 2006 \u2013 2008<\/p>\n

20. Vic Darchinyan (Australia) 2008 \u2013 2010<\/p>\n

21. Tomas Rojas (Mexico) Interim 2009<\/p>\n

22. Vic Darchinyan (Aust) 2009 \u2013 2010*<\/p>\n

23. Tomas Rojas (Mexico) 2010 \u2013 2011*<\/p>\n

24. Suriyan Por Chockchai (Thai) 2011 \u2013 2012<\/p>\n

25. Yota Sato (Japan) 2012 \u2013 2013<\/p>\n

26. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (Thai) 2013 \u2013 2014<\/p>\n

27. Carlos Cuadras (Mexico) 2014 \u2013 2016<\/p>\n

28. Roman Gonzalez (Nic) 2016 \u2013 2017<\/p>\n

29. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (Thai) 2017 \u2013 2019*<\/p>\n

30. Juan Francisco Estrada (Mex) Franchise 2019 \u2013<\/p>\n

31. Jesse Rodriguez (US) 2022 \u2013 2022<\/p>\n

32. Juan Francisco Estrada (Mex) 2022 \u2013 2024<\/p>\n

33. Jesse Rodriguez (US) 2024 \u2013<\/p>\n

* Regained<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WBC SUPER FLYWEIGHT TOP 10 CHAMPIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Gilberto Roman (Mexico)<\/p>\n

2. Santos Laciar (Argentina)<\/p>\n

3. Jiro Watanabe (Japan)<\/p>\n

4. Chulho Kim (Korea)<\/p>\n

5. Cristian Mijares (Mexico)<\/p>\n

6. Gerry Pe\u00f1alosa (Philippines)<\/p>\n

7. Sungkil Moon (Korea)<\/p>\n

8. Rafael Orono (Venezuela)<\/p>\n

9. Carlos Cuadras (Mexico)<\/p>\n

10. Jose Luis Bueno (Mexico)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE SUPER FLYWEIGHT DIVISION IN WBC HISTORY<\/strong><\/p>\n

26 world champions have been recognized by the WBC, eight of whom have regained the title: Rafael Orono (Venezuela), Gilberto Roman (Mexico), Masamori Tokuyama (Japan), Vic Darchinyan (Australia), Tomas Rojas (Mexico), Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (Thailand), Juan Francisco Estrada (Mexico), Jesse Rodriguez (USA).<\/p>\n

123 super flyweight world title fights have been held in WBC history.<\/strong><\/p>\n

MEMORABLE WBC SUPER FLYWEIGHT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nov. 9, 2024 Jesse Rodriguez TKO3 Pedro Guevara \u2013 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania<\/p>\n

June 29, 2024 Jesse Rodriguez KO7 Juan Francisco Estrada \u2013 Phoenix, Arizona<\/p>\n

Dec. 3 2022 Juan Francisco Estrada W12 Roman Gonzalez \u2013 Glendale, Arizona<\/p>\n

Sep. 17, 2022 Jesse Rodriguez W12 Israel Gonzalez \u2013 Las Vegas, Nevada<\/p>\n

June 25, 2022 Jesse Rodriguez TKO8 Srisaket Sor Rungvisai \u2013 San Antonio, Texas<\/p>\n

Feb. 5, 2022 Jesse Rodriguez W12 Carlos Cuadras \u2013 Phoenix, Arizona<\/p>\n

Mar. 13, 2021 Juan Francisco Estrada W12 Roman Gonzalez \u2013 Dallas, Texas<\/p>\n

Oct. 23, 2020 Juan Francisco Estrada TKO11 Carlos Cuadras \u2013 Mexico City, Mexico<\/p>\n

Apr. 26, 2019 Juan Francisco Estrada W12 Srisaket Sor Rungvisai \u2013 Inglewood, California<\/p>\n

Feb. 24, 2018 Srisaket Sor Rungvisai W12 Juan Francisco Estrada \u2013 Inglewood, California<\/p>\n

Sep. 9, 2017 Srisaket Sor Rungvisai KO4 Roman Gonzalez \u2013 Carson, California<\/p>\n

Mar. 18, 2017 Srisaket Sor Rungvisai W12 Roman Gonzalez \u2013 New York, New York<\/p>\n

Sep. 10, 2016 Roman Gonzalez W12 Carlos Cuadras \u2013 Inglewood, California<\/p>\n

May 31, 2014 Carlos Cuadras TW8 Srisaket Sor Rungvisai \u2013 Iztacalco, Mexico<\/p>\n

Nov. 15, 2013 Srisaket Sor Rungvisai TKO9 Hirofumi Mukai \u2013 Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand<\/p>\n

Feb. 7, 2009 Vic Darchinyan TKO11 Jorge Arce \u2013 Anaheim, California<\/p>\n

Aug. 30, 2008 Cristian Mijares TKO3 Chatchai Sasakul \u2013 Monterrey, Mexico<\/p>\n

Feb. 27, 2006 Masamori Tokuyama W12 Jose Navarro \u2013 Osaka, Japan<\/p>\n

June 28, 2004 Katsushige Kawashima TKO1 Masamori Tokuyama \u2013 Yokohama, Japan<\/p>\n

Jan. 2, 2000 In-Joo Cho W12 Gerry Pe\u00f1alosa \u2013 Seoul, South Korea<\/p>\n

Nov. 23, 1997 Gerry Pe\u00f1alosa KO10 Young-Joo Cho \u2013 Seongnam City, South Korea<\/p>\n

Jan. 18, 1995 Hiroshi Kawashima W12 Jose Luis Bueno \u2013 Yokohama, Japan<\/p>\n

Nov. 13, 1993 Jose Luis Bueno W12 Sungkil Moon \u2013 Pohang City, South Korea<\/p>\n

June 9, 1990 Sungkil Moon TKO8 Gilberto Roman \u2013 Seoul, South Korea<\/p>\n

Jan. 20, 1009 Sungkil Moon TW9 Nana Konadu \u2013 Seoul, South Korea<\/p>\n

Nov. 7, 1989 Nana Konadu W12 Gilberto Roman \u2013 Mexico City, Mexico<\/p>\n

Apr. 8, 1988 Gilberto Roman W12 Sugar Baby Rojas \u2013 Miami Beach, Florida<\/p>\n

May 16, 1987 Santos Laciar TKO11 Gilberto Roman \u2013 Reims, France<\/p>\n

Mar. 30, 1986 Gilberto Roman W12 Jiro Watanabe \u2013 Hyogo, Japan<\/p>\n

Jul. 5, 1984 Jiro Watanabe W12 Payao Poontarat \u2013 Osaska, Japan<\/p>\n

Nov. 27, 1983 Payao Poontarat W12 Rafael Orono \u2013 Pattaya, Thailand<\/p>\n

May 9, 1983 Rafael Orono W12 Raul Valdez \u2013 Caracas, Venezuela<\/p>\n

Apr. 22, 1981 Chulho Kim W15 Jiro Watanabe \u2013 Seoul, South Korea<\/p>\n

Feb. 2, 1980 Rafael Orono W15 Seung-Hoon Lee \u2013 Caracas, Venezuela<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Bamming Truth<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By James Blears<\/p>\n

An intriguing interwoven, mesh and clash of styles, when WBC super-flyweight Champion Jessie \u2018\u2019Bam\u2019\u2019 Rodriguez takes on WBO Champion Phumelele Cafu on Saturday July 19th<\/sup> at the Ford Center at Star Frisco in Texas.<\/p>\n

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 \u00a0for the first time, he handily defeated then champion Kosei Tanaka last October in for him, the hinterland of the Ariake \u00a0Arena, 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.<\/p>\n

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: \u2018\u2019Even now the sweet memory lingers. I was playing my guitar under the stars, just thanking The Lord for my fingers.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Phumelele audaciously but astutely, logically and calmly reasons: \u2018\u2019People think Jessie is a bogeyman. But no one is unbeatable. I`ll prove them wrong and I`ll be king of this division.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

His coach Colin \u2018\u2019Nomakanjani\u2019\u2019 Nathan reasons: \u2018\u2019Jessie is accurate and he has good defence.\u2019\u2019 And Plumelele chips in, chiming with adroit timing: \u2018\u2019But I`m expecting him to bring it to me, because he doesn`t seem comfortable going backwards.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2019I`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,\u2019\u2019 noting: \u2018\u2019On fight night, I`ll be on song.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Referring to Phumelele`s surprise victory in Japan, Jessie who is the Pride of San Antonio, plainly states: \u2018\u2019I`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.\u00a0 I can`t wait to fight in front of my home State fans. These type of fights, bring out the very best in me.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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?<\/p>\n

This happened, albeit briefly, when Bam took on and stopped Juan Francisco \u2018\u2019Gallo\u2019\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 He`s also adapt at successful calculated risk taking, and as hard as nails when the going gets tough.<\/p>\n

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 \u2018\u2019Medicine Man\u2019\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2018\u2019Big Bang\u2019\u2019 Nakatani had vacated to move up in weight.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Then onwards and upwards, to super-flyweight, dispatching WBC Champion Gallo Estrada, followed by a straightforward third round TKO of WBC Interim Champion Pedro \u2018\u2019Pedrin\u2019\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Whoever wins this Unification will then move to take on the other champions in a quest to become Undisputed. Jessie muses and enthuses: \u2018\u2019Just to have all of the belts and be Undisputed, would mean so much to me. This is the first step.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

As the proverb goes: \u2018\u2019The most important part of a journey is its first step.\u2019\u2019 Standing in the middle of the highway plum in his way, is Phumelele Cafu, who is determined to prevent him achieving: \u2018\u2019My way.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

So, it`s going to be a freshet in Frisco.\u00a0 The moment of \u2018\u2019Truth\u2019\u2019 for Phumelele, pitting himself against the might of southpaw Bam.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WBC Special Preview: Rodriguez vs Cafu WBC STATISTICS WBC Super Flyweight World Championship July 19, 2025 \/ Frisco, Texas \/ The Ford Center at The Star [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":151080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-news","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}