The proposed super-fight between Naoya Inoue and Jesse Rodriguez has to take place soon otherwise the Japanese superstar will seemingly turn his attention elsewhere.
Inoue and Rodriguez have been linked to each other in recent months, with the hopes of seeing them meet only increasing after they both claimed impressive wins within a few weeks of one another.
Back in May, Inoue retained his undisputed super bantamweight crown with a unanimous decision win over fellow unbeaten star and domestic rival Junto Nakatani, extending his record to 33-0 with 27 knockouts in the process.
It was then the turn of ‘Bam’ when he competed in June, stepping up to bantamweight and knocking out WBA champion Antonio Vargas to become a three-division world champion.
While he has only competed once at bantamweight, Rodriguez is willing to move up again to super-bantamweight in order to meet Inoue, but his trainer Robert Garcia has stated that they may prefer one more fight at 118lbs before leaving that division.
They may now have to rethink that strategy, after Inoue’s agent told The Ring that the Japanese icon has set a deadline of March 2027 for the fight to take place.
With March just seven months away, it would need an extremely quick turnaround for ‘Bam’ to fight on two occasions, so despite being linked to a unification clash with WBO champion Christian Medina, it would seem unlikely for that to be achievable.
Inoue is set to sit out the rest of 2026 so a possible fight with Rodriguez would be his next outing, but if ‘Bam’ can’t abide by the deadline now in place, a new opponent would have to be sought.
