Jesus Rojas: Puerto Rico’s Featherweight Sensation
Jesús Rojas is a Puerto Rican professional boxer from Caguas who held the World Boxing Association (WBA) featherweight title. His championship run included an interim title win in 2017 and a later loss to China’s Can Xu in 2019.
Boxing career and major results
Rojas won the WBA interim featherweight championship in September 2017, stopping Claudio Marrero in the seventh round. He later held the WBA’s regular featherweight title and retained it despite losing a decision to Joseph Diaz in August 2018, because Diaz had missed weight and could not claim the belt.
On January 26, 2019, Rojas faced Can Xu in Houston. Xu won by unanimous decision to take the WBA featherweight title from him. The unanimous decision ended Rojas’s WBA regular-title reign.
Rojas’s title success brought attention to Puerto Rican boxing, with a championship progression that included distinct stages: he won an interim belt in 2017, later held the regular title, and lost it to Xu in 2019.
Sources
Sources: World Boxing Association: Rojas wins interim title; WBA boxer profile: Jesús Rojas; World Boxing Association: Xu captures title from Rojas; WBA official scorecards, January 26, 2019.
Career records and reporting: wbaboxing.com.
Tags
Boxing, Boxing History
