{"id":701135,"date":"2026-05-29T00:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T00:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/701135\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T00:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T00:51:08","slug":"one-man-stands-in-the-way-of-naoya-inoue-vs-bam-rodriguez-super-fight-i-have-to-ko-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/701135\/","title":{"rendered":"One man stands in the way of Naoya Inoue vs Bam Rodriguez super fight: “I have to KO him”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early talks for a super fight between Naoya Inoue<\/a> and Jesse \u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez have been reported in recent months, but despite feelings that the fight could soon take place, one man is hoping to spoil the plans.<\/p>\n

Inoue has ruled in four divisions so far and arguably sits as the pound-for-pound number one, particularly after Oleksandr Usyk\u2019s performance on Saturday night<\/a>, with a career-best win over Junto Nakatani earlier this month further proving his quality.<\/p>\n

Now, some fans are pushing for \u2018The Monster\u2019 to move up to featherweight and attempt to rule in a fifth division, but it seems he will stick around for one more fight at 122lbs, welcoming up unified super-flyweight champion Rodriguez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Bam\u2019 is set to debut in the bantamweight division and take on WBA champion Antonio Vargas next month, moving within one weight-class of Inoue with a view to securing the super fight next. In an interview with FightHype<\/a>, however, Vargas revealed plans to knock the Texan out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith him, I just think that it is just going to come down to the timing and the adjustments. Every fighter has a rhythm, every fighter has a different timing, so it\u2019s just figuring that timing out and making sure I land the bigger and cleaner shots.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe that I am either going to have to knock him out or put him down a couple of times to make sure that the fight goes in my favour.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a big name, he is the favourite to win, if the fight is close, which I am hoping it\u2019s not, I think they\u2019ll gravitate more towards him, so I\u2019m, definitely going in there expecting to put him down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vargas then went on to say that he feels as though he has been \u2018overlooked\u2019 as whispers of Inoue-Bam negotiations became public, warning that the rumours have instilled a \u2018fire\u2019 within him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first it seemed like they were overlooking me, but at the same time, it gives me a fire. As long as I go do what I got to do on June 13, after I beat him, there is no way he is going to be able to fight Inoue.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vargas fights Rodriguez on Saturday, June 13, at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Early talks for a super fight between Naoya Inoue and Jesse \u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez have been reported in recent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-701135","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\/701135","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=701135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}