Antonio Vargas Warns Jesse Rodriguez He Can Ruin Naoya Inoue Fight Plans On July 18

WBA bantamweight champion says he expects to drop Rodriguez and derail growing talk of a future showdown with Naoya Inoue

Antonio Vargas has no interest in serving as a stepping stone to a Jesse Rodriguez-Naoya Inoue super fight. Ahead of their July 18 WBA bantamweight title fight, Vargas warned that one clean shot could end the growing expectation that Rodriguez and Inoue will eventually meet.

Rodriguez is moving up to bantamweight to challenge Vargas for the WBA title next month, with many fans already looking ahead to a possible showdown against Inoue at 122 pounds. The unbeaten Japanese star is coming off a major win over Junto Nakatani and continues to be linked to a future fight against Bam in what would be one of boxing’s biggest lower-weight bouts.

Vargas made it clear he believes those plans could collapse if he lands clean on Rodriguez.

“With him, I just think that it is just going to come down to the timing and the adjustments. Every fighter has a rhythm, every fighter has a different timing, so it’s just figuring that timing out and making sure I land the bigger and cleaner shots,” said Vargas to Fighthype, reacting to early talk of Bam Rodriguez vs. Inoue beginning to build.

“I do believe that I am either going to have to knock him out or put him down a couple of times to make sure that the fight goes in my favor.

“He is a big name, he is the favorite to win, if the fight is close, which I am hoping it’s not, I think they’ll gravitate more towards him, so I’m definitely going in there expecting to put him down.”

Rodriguez is expected to make his bantamweight debut against Vargas before potentially moving again to super bantamweight for the Inoue fight. Some fans have also called for Inoue to move to featherweight after his recent win over Nakatani, but the current expectation is that he remains at 122 for at least one more fight.

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