{"id":240826,"date":"2025-11-03T06:22:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T06:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/240826\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T06:22:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T06:22:27","slug":"bam-rodriguez-reveals-he-was-close-to-fighting-junto-nakatani-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/240826\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez Reveals He Was Close To Fighting Junto Nakatani Next"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a while now, fans have called for Jesse \u201cBam\u201d Rodriguez to get it on with Naoya Inoue. For his part, Rodriguez, the reigning WBC\/WBO champ at 115 pounds, has said that in time, when he has fully grown into super-bantamweight size and weight, he will gladly take the fight. And now, as he revealed when speaking on a new episode of the Inside The Ring podcast, \u201cBam\u201d was close to fighting Naoya\u2019s countryman (and potential super fight rival) Junto Nakatani next.<\/p>\n

Nakatani, who is seen by many as the biggest threat out there to \u201cMonster\u201d Inoue, recently made the move up to 122 pounds, thus vacating his IBF and WBC belts down a division. It is widely expected that Nakatani, if he can win his upcoming fight against Sebastian Hernandez, this on the same December card that will see unified super-bantamweight champ Inoue fight Alan Picasso, will indeed rumble with Inoue some time in 2026.<\/p>\n

Bam Rodriguez Still Wants Both Japanese Stars<\/p>\n

But what about \u201cBam?\u201d Rodriguez may have lost out on a fight with Nakatani for the time being, but the Texan still wants to fight both Japanese stars \u2013 Nakatani and Inoue. Next up, though, Rodriguez, 22-0(15) will collide with rival 115 pound champion Fernando Martinez, this in a three-belt unification clash set for November 22 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This fight could prove to be a great one, but assuming he wins it, \u201cBam\u201d will then look to move up to bantamweight.<\/p>\n

And one day, if the fights can be made, Rodriguez will fight both Nakatani and Inoue, most likely up at 122 pounds.<\/p>\n

Bam\u2019s Vision: Inoue at 122, Nakatani at 118<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, my next fight was supposed to be Nakatani,\u201d Rodriguez said on Ring Magazine<\/a>\u2019s podcast. \u201cThings were already in the works, so you know, that just shows I\u2019m willing to fight whoever, whenever. But obviously, things didn\u2019t go that way, so here I am fighting Martinez. But those two fights (Nakatani and Inoue) are definitely two fights that I do wanna get in my career. Honestly, I\u2019m not too sure (how high I would have to go in weight to get those fights). I always imagined me and Inoue at 122 or Nakatani at 118. But Nakatani, he moved up, so it\u2019s really hard to say. But there\u2019s lots of time. I\u2019m still young and got a lot to go, so there\u2019s no rush.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, we must let these two potential super fights grow into, well, super fights: \u201cBam\u201d against \u201cThe Monster,\u201d and \u201cBam\u201d against \u201cBig Bang,\u201d as Nakatani is nicknamed. Even if we have to wait until 2027, maybe even 2028, to see these fights, we fans will be as patient as we have to be.<\/p>\n

Just who is the best fighter in the world right now between 115 and 122 pounds?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a while now, fans have called for Jesse \u201cBam\u201d Rodriguez to get it on with Naoya Inoue.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,19787,18059,6573,24393,101,42157,56,54,55,42158],"class_list":["post-240826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-fight-night","tag-mark-robinson","tag-matchroom-boxing","tag-philadelphia","tag-sports","tag-two-kings","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wells-fargo-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}