Juan Francisco Estrada dropped Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez in the sixth round of their fight 16 months ago.

Rodriguez recovered relatively quickly, but he was down on one scorecard (57-56) and even on another (56-56) when he knocked out the Mexican legend with a body shot in the seventh round. If you looked at Rodriguez’s record and watched their fight for Estrada’s WBC junior bantamweight title in June 2024, Estrada seemingly gave The Ring 115-pound champion more trouble than any other opponent.

Rodriguez – who will face Fernando Martinez on Saturday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – has a different perspective on his eight-year, 25-fight professional career.

“I’d say Cafu was my toughest fight,” Rodriguez told The Ring regarding his 10th-round technical knockout of Phumelela Cafu on July 19. “I think it looked easy on TV just because he wasn’t throwing much. He was more on the defensive side, but just being inside the ring with him, he had power on his punches.

“And I wasn’t aware of when he was gonna throw, just because he was being really defensive. So, I feel like that’s what made it a difficult fight on my end. I had to be a little bit more cautious than usual.”

South Africa’s Cafu connected with enough clean punches to cause a welt beneath Rodriguez’s left eye in a fight Rodriguez entered as a 35-1 favorite. Rodriguez respected his then-unknown opponent’s power early in their fight, when Cafu complicated it by occasionally catching Rodriguez with counters as the strong southpaw opened up in combination.

Rodriguez’s right hook staggered Cafu (11-1-3, 8 KOs) with about 1:15 to go in the 10th round. Cafu wasn’t knocked down, but the former WBO junior bantamweight champ’s trainer threw in the towel approximately 20 seconds later.

San Antonio’s Rodriguez (22-0, 15 KOs), ranked No. 6 on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list, will attempt to add the WBA belt held by Argentina’s Martinez (18-0, 9 KOs) to his Ring, WBC and WBO crowns on “The Ring IV: Night of the Champions” card at ANB Arena.

Their 12-round, 115-pound title unification fight will be the second of four bouts DAZN Pay-Per-View will offer in the United States ($59.99) and the UK (£24.99). DraftKings considers Rodriguez, 25, a 10-1 favorite to beat Martinez, 34, yet Rodriguez anticipates Martinez to be even more troublesome than Cafu.

“He’s probably my toughest opponent to date, on paper,” Rodriguez said. “It’s one thing to say it, but I’ve never been inside the ring with him, so it’s hard to tell, physically, what kind of opponent he will be. But on paper, I feel like he will be my toughest fight.”