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 undefeated and tough, but largely untested. He carries the same record that Avious Griffin did when Rodriguez stopped him last June. This parallel is not lost on Rodriguez.
According to him, the match reflects a known error.
“I just feel like I have too many tools for him,” Rodriguez told The Ring. “He comes to the fight with only one weapon. He wants to come forward and throw punches. I’ve studied the tape. I’ve been doing it for 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, doesn’t sell himself as an enigma. He sells experience. He got hurt. He was dropped. He had long layoffs. He’s also been in fights where the pressure stayed high into the late rounds, and that’s where this matchup will likely end.
That was the case against Griffin, who Rodriguez met on June 28 on the Jake Paul–Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. undercard. Griffin went 18-0 with 17 strikeouts and early momentum. Knocked down in the eighth round, Rodriguez stayed calm and wore down Griffin before stopping him in the final seconds of the tenth. Two judges had the fight even in the final round.
That performance reshaped how Rodriguez was perceived. It also closed one door.
MVP Promotions explored an immediate rematch for Griffin. Rodriguez refused once the financial terms became clear.
“We already signed this agreement before the Avious Griffin fight,” Rodriguez said. “Zuffa knew they were starting shows in ’26, so they gave me time to go look for fights. I got the Avious fight, beat him. We tried to go back for the rematch, but the negotiations went sideways. It didn’t make sense. So we waited, and now here we are, on the first Zuffa show.”
The timing also works for Zuffa. The card launches a long-term partnership tied to UFC, which kicks off its own seven-year, $7.7 billion broadcast deal the following night at T-Mobile Arena. The boxing event will be held 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.
Rodriguez, a former national Golden Gloves champion in 2013, once looked like a straight-up prospect. Injuries and inactivity halted that momentum. His only loss was to 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 this is the right time for me,” he said. “Maturity-wise. Health-wise. I had a good camp. I feel good. The weight loss was easy. I know it’s going to be a back-and-forth battle. We’ll see how he holds up.”
There is no attempt here to dress this up as a career crossroads. Rodriguez isn’t 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.
