There can be a tendency to fast-forward boxing matches when money, scheduling and prevailing agendas take precedence.
If the equivalent act of telling everyone to hold their horses until Saturday night plays out for unbeaten two-division champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, his trainer and manager Robert Garcia is saying the ideal plan might not be to go directly to a fight versus undisputed junior-featherweight champion Naoya Inoue.
Garcia has told BoxingScene this fight week that he’s more apt to want recent three-belt super-flyweight champion Rodriguez, 23-0 (16 KOs), to take an expected Saturday victory over WBA bantamweight champion Antonio Vargas, 19-1-1 (11 KOs), and seek another bantamweight belt by October against someone like WBO champion Christian Medina.
“It’s not just from what I see in ‘Bam.’ I think I can make a better decision after Saturday night,” Garcia told BoxingScene Thursday following the Rodriguez-Vargas news conference at Desert Diamond Arena.
“I can’t already be thinking about 122 lbs versus Inoue when we haven’t even tested 118 lbs. The boys are bigger. Vargas has been at 118 for his career. He’s a world champion. Three pounds can make a big difference. I can’t already be looking to 122 when we haven’t done 118.”
Rodriguez promoter Eddie Hearn has spoken lately of the interest in staging a super-fight between San Antonio, Texas’ Rodriguez and Japan’s four-division champion Inoue 33-0 (27KOs) in Japan.
Garcia said he chatted with Hearn Thursday to express his opinion the matter.
“Of course, we’re going to look and listen to what happens Saturday,” Hearn told BoxingScene Thursday. “When [Rodriguez] wins Saturday, [Saudi Arabia boxing financier] Turki [Alalshikh] and Netflix and everyone will be straight on and say, ‘We want to do the fight next,’ and then we will probably be like, ‘We’d like to have one more.’
“That might not fit in their plans promotionally to do that, and then we’ll have to make a decision and ask, ‘What’s the money?’ And then we’ll have to go back to Robert and say, ‘This is what they want to do.’”
Hearn said there’s sufficient time to digest Saturday’s outcome, “but the reality is he may miss the Inoue opportunity if we wait too long.
“It’s a big, big risk that fight, but we need to see how he looks Saturday.”
Hearn prefers a Rodriguez victory by trouncing.
“He needs to go in there and physically dominate in the new weight class against the bigger guy to make people think, ‘Well, he can go [up] again and do it against someone bigger, like Naoya Inoue.”
Rodriguez, 26, responded in his typically subdued, humble manner when asked if he’d most want Inoue or another bantamweight title victory should he defeat Florida’s Vargas.
“Whatever my team decides, that’s what I’m going to do,” he said, echoing Garcia’s more conservative reaction toward the super-fight. “Some may think [Vargas] is a nobody, but I trained my ass off for this fight. It could be one of my toughest fights.
Hearn said Saturday’s DAZN-streamed bout could draw an arena record boxing crowd of 12,000, revealing the frenzied interest in the small-weights American fighter after Inoue drew 55,000 to Tokyo Dome for his May victory over countryman Junto Nakatani.
“Being a smaller-weight-class fighter in America, that’s a hard thing to do,” Rodriguez said. “Just to be a pioneer for the smaller weight classes means a lot to me, being back in Arizona with a bigger turnout than my [last] fight here shows my fan base is growing, and I’m very appreciative of my fans.”
That amplified attention is going to compound the pressure on Garcia to let his fighter proceed directly toward Inoue should a convincing triumph occur.
Garcia said he receives daily text messages from Alalshikh, often expressing his interest for sponsoring another Inoue bout, this time against Rodriguez.
“If ‘Bam’ feels super strong, feels sensational and tells me, ‘Robert, look, man this is the best I ever felt… ,’ then me and Eddie can sit down and talk and do something,” Garcia said.
At this very hour, however, Garcia said one more bantamweight title fight for Rodriguez, perhaps on Alalshikh’s forthcoming September 12 “Mexico Versus the World” card – Medina is from Mexico – would clinch his fighter’s readiness for Inoue.
“I think we’re going to have a great performance, but we also have to see how he feels. Until then, I can’t be talking ahead of time,” Garcia said. “I think we need to have one more. Medina is the best test because he’s the strongest in the division and has power.”
That said, Garcia can’t deny the unwritten deadline attached to going after Inoue, considering the four-division champion could be tempted to flee Rodriguez by moving up to featherweight, where champions Rafael Espinoza, Brandon Figueroa, Angelo Leo and Bruce Carrington reign.
Garcia said he believes Rodriguez is a better fighter than all of the featherweight champions.
“Take a look at 126,’’ Garcia said. “There’s nobody at 126 who would make a better fight than one against ‘Bam.’ [Inoue] moving up to 126 would say that he doesn’t want to fight ‘Bam.’’’
With that, Garcia reassessed the possibilities once more.
“If we come to a point where ‘Bam’ feels comfortable going to [122 lbs], and if Turki comes in and says, ‘Let’s do this,’ well then, we’ll sit down and talk,” Garcia said. “It would be great to have that conversation.”
