Jesse "Bam Bam" Rodriguez - where do you rank him P4P?

He is still young. Closer to 10 than 1.

 

He's at #6 behind Usyk, Inoue, Crawford, Bivol & Beterbiev.

But he can solidify his top 5 claim if he beats Nakatani.

 

Bam an ATG? Since when? The kid’s got a lot of talent, don’t get me wrong, but he’s still massively unproven and his best win is Sunny Edwards, which has aged like milk. Sor Rungvisai, Estrada, and Cuadras are all great fighters but they were all old as dirt. Let’s not carried away. If he can beat Pumita Martinez, then I think we’ll have someone to talk about, but, as it stands, I think the praise is a bit unwarranted.

 

Around 6-8.

 

I'm here as well. He's got more to prove, but every time he's given a chance to prove, he does. He appears exceptional at everything. Now, he does get hit more than he "should", but that's a function of his aggression. If you're relentlessly attacking, you're going to get tagged sometimes. And so far, he looks like he's got a good chin. Estrada knocked him down, but it was a flash KD from knocking him off balance more than anything, because Bam instantly got up and appeared to laugh, like "no that didn't hurt me". And then he got angry(er) and promptly ejected Estrada's liver through his anus.

If I'm his trainer, I'm perhaps thinking that if he's got a weakness, it's that aggression. You can see it in him. He fights instinctually, with his blood on fire. He's not the cold calculating type. If he could learn the moments fall into that destructive warrior mode from the moments to be calm and think, I think that's the ticket. Although watching him and his reactions, I don't know if he can do that. Too much warrior in him.

Never seen a fighter who is so calm, laid back, humble seeming out of the ring flip a switch and turn into a raging warrior when he steps foot in the ring like Bam does. It's interesting.

 

BTW, speaking of Cafu...

was he that afraid of Bam? Or was he backing into the corner as a strategy to neutralize Bam's hop/pivot/angle-shift moves? It largely DID take away Bam's footwork, forced him to just fight straight up.

 

I got him at #4

1 Uysk

2 Inoue

3 Crawford

4 Rodriguez

5 Bivol.

Thats me anyhow

 

this kid is headed for p4p #1 in 2 years. as you said, and anyone with knowledge can see, he is a complete fighter fighting at elite level since he was 22. he has lost fewer rds in 3 years than some fighters on the p4p list have lost in 1 fight.
he will beat martinez, then when the goal post gets moved to nakatani, he will beat him. and follow all the new goal posts leading to inoue.
there may be fighters ahead of him on the list, but only because of a combined legacy, but none of them are fighting at a higher skill level than bam is fighting right now.

 

I dont think the Nakatani fight happens because Nakatani is moving up to 122 to fight Inoue

 

Agreed that Rung and Cuadras were complete **** versions. Estrada though still had decent form

 

then i think bam follows them up there. he already said yes to jumping up another division for nakatani, they declined for their own reasons. and he already proved what hes about by taking the cuadras fight on a weeks notice and jumping up 2 divisions to beat him. the kids about his business. hes gonna look tiny against them, but thats the kinda smoke hes looking for.

 

I dont know 122 is a lot for Bam

 

He's more or less the same size as Inoue and he has fought as high as featherweight before. If he's as good as me and others think he shouldn't have a problem fighting at 122

 

If Bam turns out as good as you think he will be you deserve all the credit in the world. I need to see Bam fight a young hard hitting dude in their prime. For example Vergil beating Madrimob and Bobachuk (big puncher) in their prime is more impressive than any Bam win. Bam has bigger names but doesn’t necessarily mean better.

Even though I don’t rate Nakatani super high, he’s very solid but not a true elite, probably a similar level to Madrimob and Bohachuk, i would give Bam a lot of credit if he won. Bams win over Sunny was good but Sunny is featherfister and also much smaller. I want to see how his chin holds up and if he’s going to go into a shell like Loma did against Teo if he fights a hard hitter bigger than him that will hit his body.