Juan Francisco Estrada will face Bam Rodriguez in a June 29 main event on DAZN, in a fight that was expected and is now official.
The 34-year-old Estrada (44-3, 28 KO) will be fighting for the first time since his Dec. 2022 trilogy match win over Chocolatito Gonzalez. He’ll also be defending the WBC super flyweight title.
The 24-year-old Rodriguez (19-0, 12 KO) will be making his return to the 115 lb ranks. He won this WBC belt in Feb. 2022, defended twice that June and September, and vacated for a move down to flyweight. The run at 112 lbs went quite well, with Rodriguez winning the WBO belt in his first outing, then unifying with a dominant win over Sunny Edwards this past December.
The next move was made clear quickly: Bam would return to 115 and target Estrada. There was talk of Estrada doing a table-setter fight ahead of this one, but that’s now not going to happen, and he’ll break a long streak of inactivity to go straight in against one of the top rising stars in the sport.
Rodriguez may wind up solidly favored on paper, and Estrada is definitely past his absolute peak, but Estrada will also be the most experienced, well-rounded fighter that Bam has faced, at least on paper. This is a top young fighter trying to take the crown from a proper king, a guy who deserves to be called a future Hall of Famer.