- Bam Rodriguez stopped Antonio Vargas in the sixth round in Glendale to capture the WBA bantamweight title and become a three-division world champion
- Vargas was brave and competitive early, but Bam Rodriguez found the body, broke him down, and finished it in clinical fashion
- With the win, Bam Rodriguez moves a step closer to the Naoya Inoue superfight the whole sport wants to see
Right Then — Bam Just Announced Himself All Over Again
Right then, let's not beat around the bush: Bam Rodriguez is special, and on Saturday night in Glendale he reminded everyone exactly why. He stopped Antonio Vargas in the sixth round to take the WBA bantamweight title, and in doing so became a world champion in a third weight division. Three weights. He's still a kid. Make no mistake, this is one of the best young fighters on the planet, and the gap between Bam Rodriguez and the rest of the division is starting to look like levels.
I picked Bam to win and I picked him to stop Vargas, but I'll be honest with you — Vargas made him work for it early. This was not a walkover, and that only makes the performance better.
How The Fight Played Out
Vargas came to fight. The first few rounds were properly competitive, with the challenger throwing with intent and refusing to be intimidated by the occasion. For two or three rounds you could make a case it was close. Then Bam Rodriguez did what the elite ones do — he adjusted. He started digging to the body, those short, nasty hooks underneath that take the legs and the will out of a man one round at a time.
By the sixth, Vargas had nothing left to give. A sustained attack upstairs and down forced the stoppage, and there were no complaints. When you break a brave man down like that, methodically, round by round, you're watching a champion at work. That's the difference between a good fighter and a great one.
Credit Where It's Due To Vargas
I won't have anyone writing Antonio Vargas off. He took the fight, he came forward, and he had his moments before the levels told. There's no shame in losing to a fighter this good. He'll be back, and he'll win titles of his own.
So What Now? One Name. You Know The One
Three divisions, unbeaten, and box-office. There's only one fight that makes sense at the top of this division, and that's Naoya Inoue. Bam's been calling for it, the fans want it, and after this it's getting harder for anyone to pretend it isn't the biggest fight in the lower weights. There's talk of Takuma Inoue first — Naoya's brother holds the WBC strap — and I get the storyline appeal of beating one brother before the other. But the real prize is Naoya.
My prediction? Bam gets the Inoue fight inside the next eighteen months, and when he does, it'll be a proper Fight of the Year contender. He's earned the right to ask for it. On this evidence, he might just be the man to do it.