{"id":649733,"date":"2026-05-04T20:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/649733\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T20:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T20:48:10","slug":"hearn-says-bam-rodriguez-beats-naoya-inoue-in-nakatani-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/649733\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearn Says Bam Rodriguez Beats Naoya Inoue In Nakatani Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxing247.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add East Side Boxing as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqKAgKIiJDQklTRXdnTWFnOEtEV0p2ZUdsdVp6STBOeTVqYjIwb0FBUAE?ceid=US:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow East Side Boxing on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>The result kept Inoue in control of the division, but the nature of the fight has led to fresh debate about how he matches up with elite opponents at 122 pounds.<\/p>\n<p>Hearn believes the opening is there for Jesse Rodriguez if the fight is made.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI watched Inoue up close, in Saudi Arabia, and I\u2019ve never been more convinced that Jesse \u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez beats him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor a long period of time, I thought it might be a step too far for Jesse. But now Jesse\u2019s up at bantamweight, and feels big and strong, I just think he\u2019s too good for [Inoue].<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s 26 years old. And what\u2019s Inoue, 33 now? I don\u2019t see \u2018Bam\u2019 losing to Inoue. I thought Inoue would go through Nakatani and do a right job on him, and it was a very competitive fight,\u201d said Eddie Hearn, via Boxing News.<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez is currently set to challenge Antonio Vargas at bantamweight, with plans to move higher if successful. A meeting with Inoue has been discussed as a potential undisputed fight, depending on how both sides progress over the coming months.<\/p>\n<p>There is also interest from Saudi backers in staging Inoue vs Rodriguez in Japan early next year, which would place one of boxing\u2019s leading names against a younger champion moving through the divisions.<\/p>\n<p>Inoue has previously spoken about moving up again, but for now remains at 122 pounds, where a fight with Rodriguez is being explored as one of the biggest options available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The result kept Inoue in control of the division, but the nature of the fight has led to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-649733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}