{"id":615442,"date":"2026-06-01T15:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T15:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/615442\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T15:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T15:35:08","slug":"shakur-stevenson-picks-a-winner-in-naoya-inoue-vs-bam-rodriguez-he-can-put-him-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/615442\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakur Stevenson picks a winner in Naoya Inoue vs \u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez: “He can put him down”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following his impressive victory over Juno Nakatani, Naoya Inoue<\/a> is being linked to a showdown with Jesse \u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez, and fellow pound-for-pound contender Shakur Stevenson<\/a> has shared his prediction for the proposed fight.<\/p>\n

Inoue defended his undisputed super-bantamweight crown with a unanimous decision victory over Nakatani at the Tokyo Dome a month ago, strengthening his claim to the pound-for-pound number one spot, particularly after Oleksandr Usyk\u2019s close shave against Rico Verhoeven.<\/p>\n

With the Japanese star having cleaned out the 122lb division, fight fans are now discussing the prospect of a clash against unified super-flyweight champion Rodriguez<\/a>\u00a0before a planned move to featherweight.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Matchroom Boxing<\/a>, WBO super-lightweight champion Stevenson believes \u2018Bam\u2019 could prove to be Inoue\u2019s \u2018Kryptonite\u2019, highlighting that Inoue has been knocked down by the left-handed Luis Nery and that Rodriguez, who is also a southpaw, possesses the power to floor the unbeaten sensation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like Bam, I can\u2019t go against Bam. I know Bam, Bam is my guy. I think that Inoue is a great fighter but I think that Bam may be his Kryptonite.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen him [Inoue] get dropped by a southpaw and I think that Bam punches hard enough where he could drop him too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodriguez is already set to move up from super-flyweight when he challenges for Antonio Vargas\u2019 WBA bantamweight world title at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona next weekend.<\/a> If he is successful, it is believed that the undefeated American will call for his shot at Inoue in the aftermath, moving up one more division to make it happen.<\/p>\n

Promoter Eddie Hearn has said preliminary talks have taken place and that his man Rodriguez is more than willing to travel to Japan for the showdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following his impressive victory over Juno Nakatani, Naoya Inoue is being linked to a showdown with Jesse \u2018Bam\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-615442","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\/615442","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=615442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}