This fight is different.
Rodriguez meets Cain Sandoval in a 10-round junior welterweight bout that opens Zuffa Boxing’s debut card Friday night in Las Vegas, streaming on Paramount+. Sandoval is unbeaten and heavy-handed, but largely untested. He carries the same record as Avious Griffin did when Rodriguez stopped him last June. That parallel is not lost on Rodriguez.
In his view, the matchup reflects a familiar mistake.
“I just feel like I have too many tools for him,” Rodriguez told The Ring. “He’s coming to the fight with only one weapon. He wants to come forward and throw punches. I’ve studied the tape. I’ve been doing this a long time. This is boxing. Anything can happen. But I know what I can do, and I don’t think he’s going to be able to handle it.”
Rodriguez, now 31, is not selling himself as a mystery. He is selling experience. He has been hurt. He has been dropped. He has had long layoffs. He has also been in fights where the pressure stayed high into the late rounds, which is where this matchup is likely to end up.
That was the case against Griffin, whom Rodriguez met June 28 on the Jake Paul–Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. undercard. Griffin entered 18-0 with 17 knockouts and early momentum. Rodriguez was knocked down in the eighth round, stayed composed, and broke Griffin down before stopping him in the final seconds of the tenth. Two judges had the fight even going into the last round.
That performance reshaped how Rodriguez was viewed. It also closed one door.
MVP Promotions explored an immediate rematch for Griffin. Rodriguez declined once the financial terms became clear.
“We already had this deal signed before the Avious Griffin fight,” Rodriguez said. “Zuffa knew they were starting shows in ’26, so they gave me time to go find fights. I got the Avious fight, beat him. We tried to circle back for the rematch, but the negotiations went sideways. It didn’t make sense. So we waited, and now we’re here, on the first Zuffa show.”
The timing works for Zuffa as well. The card launches a long-term partnership tied to UFC, which begins its own seven-year, $7.7 billion broadcast agreement the following night at T-Mobile Arena. The boxing event will be staged at the newly branded Meta Apex and is headlined by Irish contender Callum Walsh, who moves up to middleweight to face Carlos Ocampo.
Rodriguez’s placement at the front of the broadcast is deliberate. He is a known quantity. He is also a reminder that not every rebuild needs to be protected.
A former national Golden Gloves champion in 2013, Rodriguez once looked like a straightforward prospect. Injuries and inactivity stalled that momentum. His only loss came against Jose Pedraza, who stopped him after eight competitive rounds in 2021. Since then, Rodriguez has tried to stay active and honest about where he stands.
“I feel like this is the right time for me,” he said. “Maturity-wise. Health-wise. I had a good camp. I feel good. The weight cut was easy. I know it’s going to be a back-and-forth fight. We’ll see how he holds up.”
There is no attempt here to dress this up as a career crossroads. Rodriguez is not being sold as a future star. He is a capable fighter with mileage, power, and a clear sense of who he is. In a league built on separation and control, that alone makes him an interesting test.
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