{"id":883746,"date":"2026-09-07T22:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T22:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/883746\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T22:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T22:44:10","slug":"naoya-inoue-delivers-honest-verdict-on-jesse-bam-rodriguezs-boxing-ability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/883746\/","title":{"rendered":"Naoya Inoue delivers honest verdict on Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez’s boxing ability"},"content":{"rendered":"

Naoya Inoue<\/a> has assessed whether the power and skillset of Jesse \u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez would make for a worthy challenge at 122lbs.<\/p>\n

The two lower-division stars have expressed no shortage of interest in fighting one another, almost to the point that their mouth-watering showdown seems inevitable.<\/p>\n

Or at least, according to coach Robert Garcia<\/a>, a clash with Inoue can certainly happen so long as Rodriguez is given the chance to enter one more outing at 118lbs.<\/p>\n

The American made his bantamweight debut in June, dethroning Antonio Vargas with a sixth-round finish<\/a> to claim the WBA title and become a three-division world champion.<\/p>\n

But while it was, for the most part, a mightily impressive performance, many made the observation that Bam seemed slightly undersized at the new weight.<\/p>\n

Inoue, too, has told Ring Magazine<\/a> that he noticed such physical disadvantages against Vargas, but nonetheless believes that Rodriguez\u2019s eye for a knockout, rather than the power itself, is what makes him a worthy challenger to his undisputed super-bantamweight crown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did get the impression that, physically, things weren\u2019t quite the same for him as they had been before. But he still managed to finish the fight with a knockout.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis strength isn\u2019t really about physical power. He has the ability to punch through you with pinpoint accuracy. For example, even if I were fighting at super-featherweight or lightweight, I think I\u2019d still be able to hurt an opponent with a punch they didn\u2019t see coming. I think it\u2019s the same with Bam.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he had tried to rely on physical strength in that fight, I don\u2019t think he would have produced that kind of knockout. I saw that ability in him to land punches from blind spots and take advantage of openings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having not fought since his unanimous decision victory over Junto Nakatani in May, Inoue plans to return early next year, either to defend his belts against Bam or move up to featherweight.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez, meanwhile, is likely to enter a unification match with WBO champion Christian Medina later this year, before hopefully facing the Japanese \u2018Monster\u2019 in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naoya Inoue has assessed whether the power and skillset of Jesse \u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez would make for a worthy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-883746","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\/883746","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=883746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}