Shakur Stevenson has named the most likely fighter to defeat Naoya Inoue, who remains unbeaten after having become a two-division undisputed champion.
‘The Monster’ unified all four major belts at 118lbs before moving up to super-bantamweight, where he has made seven straight defences of his undisputed crown.
His most recent outing, against three-weight world champion Junto Nakatani, resulted in a unanimous decision victory at a sold-out Tokyo Dome last month.
Many would therefore regard Inoue as the sport’s No.1 pound-for-pound fighter, with the Japanese star having also won world titles at flyweight and super-flyweight.
At 33 years old, though, it is difficult to predict how much longer he will remain at the elite level, especially if his next assignment happens to be against Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez.
The 26-year-old American became a three-division world champion last week, dethroning Antonio Vargas with a sixth-round stoppage at 118lbs.
As the newly-crowned WBA bantamweight champion, there is now talk of him either unifying the division – perhaps against WBO titlist Christian Medina – or moving up to 122lbs in preparation for the potential Inoue showdown next year.
Either way, Stevenson has told The Agnew Podcast that he believes Rodriguez stands the best chance at toppling Inoue.
“I think he’s the truth. If anybody can do it – with them type of skills, I think ‘Bam’ can do it.”
Stevenson went on to admit that, in the amateurs, he was introduced to the fight of his life against Rodriguez’s last opponent.
In the end, he edged a split decision against Vargas, who subsequently competed at the 2016 Olympics and showed, even against ‘Bam’, that he is capable of posing problems to elite fighters.
