{"id":587189,"date":"2026-05-16T11:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/587189\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T11:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T11:13:09","slug":"jesse-bam-rodriguez-rates-naoya-inoues-performance-against-nakatani-ahead-of-potential-mega-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/587189\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesse &#8216;Bam&#8217; Rodriguez rates Naoya Inoue&#8217;s performance against Nakatani ahead of potential mega fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jesse \u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez has rated Naoya Inoue\u2019s performance against Junto Nakatani ahead of their potential undisputed showdown early next year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/naoya-inoue-vs-junto-nakatani-live\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The super-bantamweight king retained his titles against Nakatani<\/a> earlier this month, claiming a unanimous decision victory at a sold-out Tokyo Dome.<\/p>\n<p>While not being the most action-packed affair, the pair engaged in a high-intensity chess match that seemed to be favouring the challenger between rounds eight and 10.<\/p>\n<p>In response, though, Inoue was able to demonstrate his elite-level adaptability, making the necessary adjustments to outpoint the three-weight world champion.<\/p>\n<p>This saw him make a seventh successful defence of his undisputed crown at 122lbs, where he has reigned supreme for the best part of two years.<\/p>\n<p>Someone who could pose a threat to his supremacy, meanwhile, is Rodriguez, who looks to become a three-division world champion in his next outing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.matchroomboxing.com\/events\/rodriguez-vs-vargas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The 26-year-old will face WBA bantamweight champion Antonio Vargas on June 13<\/a>, having unified the super-flyweight division with back-to-back stoppages over Phumelela Cafu and Fernando Martinez.<\/p>\n<p>Like Inoue, \u2018Bam\u2019 is considered a top five pound-for-pound operator, with preliminary talks for their possible blockbuster encounter having already taken place.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, Rodriguez must remain in the win column, but tells <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Mu-029mYUXQ?si=DfLoT4RQhQ_ap0TL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Fight Hub TV<\/a> that he gives \u2018The Monster\u2019 an A-plus rating for his performance against Nakatani.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe he did a great job \u2013 A-plus performance. He beat another [top] pound-for-pound fighter in Nakatani, so I think that\u2019s one of his best wins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, there is a tremendous amount of respect between \u2018Bam\u2019 and Inoue, who, at the age of 33, is perhaps approaching the closing stages of his illustrious career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jesse \u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez has rated Naoya Inoue\u2019s performance against Junto Nakatani ahead of their potential undisputed showdown early&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-587189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587189","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=587189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}