{"id":942424,"date":"2026-10-27T06:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T06:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/942424\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T06:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T06:30:09","slug":"trainer-robert-garcia-explains-sudden-change-of-plan-as-inoue-vs-bam-rodriguez-talks-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/942424\/","title":{"rendered":"Trainer Robert Garcia explains sudden change of plan as Inoue vs &#8216;Bam&#8217; Rodriguez talks progress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The head coach of Jesse \u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez, Robert Garcia, has demanded a contract as negotiations between them and Naoya Inoue appear to be progressing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/jesse-rodriguez-accept-inoue-demand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Both sides are in talks to stage their mega fight in March<\/a>, with Inoue making an eighth defence of his undisputed super-bantamweight crown after unanimously outpointing Junto Nakatani in May.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, the Japanese \u2018Monster\u2019 has teased a move up to 126lbs, saying he will do so unless \u2018Bam\u2019 agrees to face him in his next outing.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia\u2019s original plan, however, was for Rodriguez to have one more fight at 118lbs after becoming a three-weight world champion by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/boxing\/story\/_\/id\/49057405\/jesse-bam-rodriguez-stops-antonio-vargas-improves-24-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">dethroning Anthonio Vargas with a sixth-round knockout in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The 26-year-old was therefore set to return later this year, possibly in a unification match with WBO champion Christian Medina.<\/p>\n<p>But now, it seems, Rodriguez could end up relinquishing his WBA bantamweight title and jumping straight into a clash with Inoue, who appears willing to remain at 122lbs for a short while longer.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/boxingscene\/status\/2113766285586866371?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Speaking with BoxingScene<\/a>, coach Garcia confirmed this option while urging Inoue\u2019s team to send over a contract.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf he can\u2019t wait an extra two months, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a weight issue; I think he wants to take advantage of Bam not having that extra [bantamweight] fight I\u2019m asking for.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat gives me confidence that we can go straight into the fight. Send me that f**king contract.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It has also been reported that Inoue\u2019s agent John Lewis is in talks with Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn to stage the potential fight in Tokyo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head coach of Jesse \u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez, Robert Garcia, has demanded a contract as negotiations between them and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-942424","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\/942424","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=942424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}