By Norm Frauenheim
Home can be just about anywhere, especially if it only includes a couple of stools and is surrounded by ropes.
What can go wrong?
Plenty, of course.
But Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez has found only success in what he calls a second home.
Rodriguez, who grew up in San Antonio, is about to fight a fourth bout in the Phoenix area, this time at Desert Diamond Arena in nearby Glendale for a significant step up the scale to bantamweight in a bout that looks a lot like a test of his hopes to one day face Naoya Inoue.
“They gave him two options for June 13,’’ Bam trainer Robert Garcia said. “San Antonio or Phoenix? He picked Phoenix.’’
He did, for more than one reason. He trains in Riverside, Calif., which is closer to Phoenix than San Antonio. But Phoenix has also become a key to his emergence as a pound-for-pound contender.
“This place changed my life,’’ Bam, a two-division champion, said Thursday during a media workout at Central Boxing for his June 13 118-pound date against Antonio Vargas.
He won his first title, a 112-pound belt, with a 2022 victory over Carlos Cuadras at the Suns arena, a few blocks from Central.
Since then, Bam has emerged, from a so-called little guy to a very big name near the top of the pound-for-pound debate.
In the process, he has created a big fan-base in central Arizona, which has probably appreciated fighters in the lighter weight classes more than any other boxing market.
AZ, after all, grew up on watching one of the best little guys ever in Hall of Fame junior-flyweight Michael Carbajal.
“Carbajal was the first,’’ Garcia said. “He made history.’’
In Bam’s dangerous hands, that history might continue to unfold. The two-division champion is planning on Inoue, perhaps sometime next year..
Bam called the Inoue possibility “inevitable” Thursday. He also said he watched Inoue’s victory over Junto Nakatani in front 55,000 at the Tokyo Dome May 2.
“It was a great performance,’’ Bam said. “Nakatani is a really tough fighter.’’
Throughout all the hype for Inoue-Nakatani, Inoue mentioned Rodriguez and confirmed that a fight with Bam was a real possibility.
For Bam, that’ll mean more than one more move up in weight. Inoue has been fighting at 122 pounds. He’s talked about fighting at 126, featherweight.
For Bam, that means making two – maybe three –more moves up the scale and one more move back to Phoenix, where it all started.