Bam Rodriguez is moving to bantamweight on Saturday, and he’s leaving no pull back to the super flyweight division.
Rodriguez has officially vacated his WBC, WBA, and WBO super flyweight titles for the move to 118 lbs, meaning that if he loses Saturday to Antonio Vargas, he won’t have the title-holding leverage for a potential return to 115, which standing titleholders often keep in their back pocket until the next challenge has been seen through.
We saw one example of that situation back in 2024,
when Emanuel Navarrete, then the WBO super featherweight titlist, moved up to challenge Denys Berinchyk for that sanctioning body’s lightweight title. Berinchyk defeated Navarrete, who dropped back down from 135 to 130 and resumed his title reign as a champion and A-side.
In other words, he wasn’t forced to do make this move. Rodriguez, 26, is not giving himself that sort of fall-back option by choice, which speaks to his confidence ahead of the fight.
Many have expected his stint at bantamweight to be a one-off, where he would, in theory, beat Vargas to become a three-division world champion, then move up to face undisputed super bantamweight king Naoya Inoue. That could still happen, but Rodriguez has also floated the idea that he may stay at bantamweight for at least a second fight, a potential unification with WBC titleholder and Naoya’s brother, Takuma Inoue.
Bad Left Hook will have live results and reactions for Bam Rodriguez vs Antonio Vargas on Saturday, June 13, 2026, starting at 7 pm ET.
