Jesse Rodriguez to fight Phumelela Cafu in unification bout July 19

One of the most exciting young fighters in boxing will be back in action this summer.

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez (21-0, 14 KOs) will face South Africa‘s Phumelela Cafu (11-0-3, 8 KOs) in a junior bantamweight unification bout on July 19 at The Star’s Ford Center in Frisco, Texas. Rodriguez currently holds the WBC title while Cafu is the WBO 115-pound titleholder.

Fighting out of San Antonio, Rodriguez is a two-division world champion who has actively sought a fight against another champion in the junior bantamweight division. He captured the WBC title with a 7th-round stoppage of Juan Francisco Estrada last June and had a successful title defense in November when he scored a 3rd-round TKO against Pedro Guevara. “Bam,” 25, is ranked No. 7 on ESPN’s pound-for-pound list and owns wins over Sunny Edwards, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Carlos Cuadras.

He’ll stand opposite of Cafu, who captured the WBO title by upsetting Kosei Tanaka with a split decision last October in Tokyo. Cafu, 30, was previously linked to a potential showdown with Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzales for his first title defense, but those plans fell through. Now he will get the opportunity to unify the titles against one of the best fighters in the sport.

The co-main event on July 19 is a super middleweight showdown between Diego Pacheco (23-0, 18 KOs) and Trevor McCumby (28-1, 21 KOs). Pacheco, 24, is coming off of a unanimous decision win over Steve Nelson in January. He is ESPN’s No. 4 ranked Super Middleweight. McCumby, 32, hopes to bounce back after suffering the first defeat of his career against Caleb Plant last September.

The fight will be streamed on DAZN.

Source: espn.com