As one door apparently closes, another one possibly opens. Fans of the lower-weight warriors of the sport, and of the who-doesn’t-love-watching-him, “Bam” Rodriguez in particular, will be keen to learn the news Ring Magazine has learned. Initially, it was going to be a return fight between Fernando Martinez and Kazuto Ioka. These two gave us a thriller of a junior bantamweight battle in the summer, with Argentina’s Martinez edging Ioka in his homeland of Japan to go home with the WBA and the IBF 115-pound belts.
The rematch was set for New Year’s Eve, the anticipated return to fill one of the customary big-fight dates that we are regularly treated to in Japan at that time of the year. But Martinez, 17-0(9) fell ill with the flu, this mere hours before the official weigh-in was to have taken place. Plenty of us were gutted at the time – what with this fight going down the drain, along with the Naoya Inoue-Sam Goodman fight, which was also set to also keep our Christmas spirits up, the fight set for Christmas Eve.
But now, as per Ring, Martinez and Rodriguez are currently in talks for a unification fight that could happen in the spring. “Bam,” 21-0(14), the WBC champ as well as being one of the most exciting fighters in the sport right now, against Martinez, the WBA champ who also happens to be one of the more exciting fighters currently operating. Yes, please!
As bad a loss as this could prove to be for Ioka (a future Hall of Famer, surely), and as bad a hit as the losing of the Martinez-Ioka rematch would be for plenty of fans, this possible replacement fight sure ain’t no bad consolation. In fact, you could say Rodriguez Vs. Martinez is one of the best fights money could buy.
The aim, we hear, is for this fight to take place in the spring, with a venue still to be confirmed. In fact, a fight between “Bam” and “Pumita” is far from a done deal, yet those talks are ongoing.
Who wins if these two superb, unbeaten, in their prime warriors (Martinez being the significantly older man here at 33 to Rodriguez’s 25) get it on this year?
