Robert Garcia thinks Naoya Inoue is merely posturing by asserting preparations for featherweight. But, the coach is likely to be utterly misjudging a champion who merely received uninterested in ready round for Jesse’Bam’ Rodriguez.
Garcia not too long ago altered his tune, placing March on the desk as a substitute of his authentic April or Might window. He sounds sure {that a} conflict can nonetheless occur, but nothing Inoue posted signifies an curiosity in pausing his soar to 126 kilos.
“If Inoue and his crew are actually prepared to do it, all we want is a cellphone name, and we’ll work it out,” Garcia advised The Ring. “I feel Inoue is simply taking part in it sensible. I don’t suppose he’s backing out of the combat.”
Garcia desperately wants that studying to show true. His earlier proposal assumed Inoue would maintain tight whereas Rodriguez took one other bantamweight bout earlier than shifting up. Inoue answered instantly by kicking off his featherweight readiness. Garcia clearly miscalculated how badly that timetable would land.
“All he must do is inform his administration crew and promoter to come up with us, and we’ll make a deal,” Garcia stated. “That’s not an issue. We are going to make a deal for March.”
In the meantime, Rodriguez is penciled in to satisfy Christian Medina in December, eyeing dates round December 11 or December 19. That schedule creates a brutal turnaround heading into March, banking on Bam escaping utterly unscathed to begin one other camp.
The true drawback is whether or not Garcia spoke up too late. Shifting the date to March fixes the timeline on paper, but it surely received’t pressure Inoue to shelve his transfer upward. Garcia may suppose Inoue’s bluffing. In actuality, the coach may simply be scrambling after fumbling the negotiation. If Inoue meant each phrase about shifting on, March is a proposal arriving after the ship has already sailed.
His public optimism feels much less like an correct studying of Inoue and extra like a coach making an attempt to manage the injury after grossly overplaying his hand.
When Garcia floated April or Could so Rodriguez may squeeze in a December unification bout with Christian Medina, he made the basic mistake of treating Inoue like a B-side who would fortunately sit idle and put his physique by extra months at 122 kilos simply to accommodate Bam’s developmental timeline.
Garcia admitted that he needed the Medina combat so Bam Rodriguez may really feel punches at 118 and get accustomed to taking heavy photographs from an even bigger man earlier than stepping in with a pound-for-pound puncher. That tells you every little thing. Workforce Garcia needed their cake and to eat it too: acquire one other bantamweight belt in December, construct confidence, and make Inoue wait till late spring.
Inoue calling their bluff by brazenly making ready for 126 kilos was the predictable response from a fighter who values exercise and historic legacy over taking part in ready video games. Garcia out of the blue pivoting to March is a panic transfer.
Turning round three months after a tricky December bout is unrealistic for Rodriguez anyway, and it utterly ignores the truth that Inoue has possible closed the door. Garcia mistook Inoue’s persistence for dependence, and now he’s making an attempt to persuade the boxing public that the cellphone name he desires remains to be going to return.
