SAN ANTONIO \u2013 San Antonio\u2019s Jesse \u201cBam\u201d Rodriguez (23-0, 16 KOs) is set to battle for the WBA Bantamweight Title against defending champion Antonio Vargas (19-1-1, 11 KOs) in a 12-round main event Saturday night in Glendale, Arizona. <\/p>\n
The event will be Rodriguez\u2019s first fight this year and first in the bantamweight division. <\/p>\n
The undefeated champ and ESPN\u2019s No. 3 pound-for-pound boxer<\/a> in the world recently vacated<\/a> his WBC, WBA and WBO super flyweight titles ahead of the Vargas fight as he plans to compete in the 118-pound bantamweight division for the time being. <\/p>\n Rodriguez spoke at a press conference in Desert Diamond Arena on Friday ahead of the big fight and addressed the all-in stakes he set for himself. <\/p>\n \u201c(I\u2019m) constantly trying to challenge myself,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cIf it\u2019s not a world title fight, then it really doesn\u2019t interest me. Or even if it\u2019s just a simple defense, it really doesn\u2019t interest me or get me going inside the gym.\u201d <\/p>\n Rodriguez, 26, isn\u2019t a fan of plan Bs. By eliminating his fallback leverage to potentially reclassify in the 115-pound class, he\u2019s set to compete in the 118-pound division, or heavier, going forward. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m feeling much better at this weight class … the fact that I don\u2019t have to lose that extra three pounds,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cSo, just expect another spectacular performance, and I\u2019m ready to go out there and make it happen.\u201d <\/p>\n The question will be whether Rodriguez can dominate at this level like he did in the lighter-weight divisions before eventually reaching his ultimate goal of fighting the undisputed No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world, Naoya Inoue. <\/p>\n Ask him? There\u2019s no doubt in his mind that the answer is yes. <\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I haven\u2019t even shown 50% of what I\u2019m capable of,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cBut the tougher the opponent, then the bigger my performance. And Antonio Vargas, I feel like he\u2019s going to bring out another percentage of \u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez, and I can\u2019t wait to go out there and show it.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cBam\u201d is a massive betting favorite over Vargas, with the money line currently ranging between -2000 and -3335 in his favor across major sportsbooks. <\/p>\n Rodriguez vs. Vargas will air on DAZN, with coverage beginning at 6 p.m. CT.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 San Antonio\u2019s Jesse \u201cBam\u201d Rodriguez (23-0, 16 KOs) is set to battle for the WBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9089,82,84,83,154],"class_list":["post-334187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-jesse-rodriguez","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}