Cardenas Weighs In on a Potential Inoue vs 'Bam' Rodriguez Superfight

Naoya Inoue sits at 33-0 with 27 knockouts, a four-division champion who's defended his undisputed super-bantamweight crown seven times. But the perfect ledger no longer reads as untouchable. A potential spring 2027 meeting with three-weight titleholder Jesse 'Bam' Rodriguez is now on the table, and the last fighter to put Inoue on the canvas thinks it's a live one.

That fighter is Ramon Cardenas, currently the WBC's #5 super-bantamweight at 27-2 (15 KO). He dropped Inoue in their bout last May before 'The Monster' regrouped and stopped him in the seventh. Asked about a Rodriguez showdown, Cardenas called it a genuinely good fight — for Bam, for Inoue, and for boxing — and said he'd love to see it made.

Why the Cracks Matter

For years Inoue's chin was a rumour nobody could confirm. Then 2024 happened. Luis Nery put him down for the first time in his career, and Cardenas repeated the trick a year later. Inoue won both times, and he most recently outpointed Junto Nakatani over 12 rounds by unanimous decision — but the aura of invincibility has thinned. Nery has since slid to 37-3 after a fourth-round stoppage loss to John Riel Casimero, so the level of the men landing on Inoue matters too.

Cardenas didn't hedge on the competitive angle. He said he's known Rodriguez since Bam was 10 years old, described him as fiercely competitive, and insisted that fighters out of San Antonio will take on anyone. His read: offer Rodriguez the fight and he signs immediately. He declined to pick a winner.

What Has to Happen First

There's homework before any superfight. Rodriguez is slated for a bantamweight title unification against WBO 118lb champion Christian Medina later this year. Medina brings a 27-4 (19 KO) record and is coming off a unanimous-decision win over Adrian Curiel, so it's no gimme.

If Rodriguez clears that hurdle and the money lines up, boxing gets one of its most intriguing crossroads fights — a pound-for-pound fixture with two recent knockdowns on his record against a hungry, technically sharp multi-division champion. Cardenas thinks it'd be remembered for a while. On the evidence of the last two years, he's not wrong to be curious.