The Ring’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter is hoping to land a mega fight against Rodriguez in the first quarter of 2027. If that fight does take place, Robert Garcia, Rodriguez’s trainer, wants to exploit some of the weaknesses Inoue has shown in past fights.

Against Ramon Cardenas and Luis Nery, the Japanese star was dropped by a pair of overhand lefts. Although Inoue (33-0, 27 KOs) managed to shake off those hard shots and win those fights by stoppage, Garcia’s seen enough shaky moments from the undisputed junior featherweight champion.

However, Cardenas (27-2, 15 KOs) believes that the four-division champion won’t allow Garcia and Rodriguez to take advantage of those mental and physical lapses.

“I think he learned from his mistakes,” Cardenas told The Ring. “With fighters like that, he’ll mess up one time. He messed up with me, messed up with Nery, but he’s not gonna mess up the second time. When I fought him, I knew that he put his hands down, but after that first punch I didn’t catch him anymore. I kept looking for it but it wasn’t there. It’s gonna be hard to catch that stuff. Inoue already knows that they’re looking at.”

After Rodriguez stopped Antonio Vargas in six lopsided rounds on June 13 at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, to win the WBA bantamweight title, Garcia stated that the No. 4 on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list may attempt to grab another 118-pound title before moving up in weight.

Cardenas, like many, is hoping to see them fight in the near future, but he also has his own career to worry about.

Since losing to Inoue via eighth-round stoppage in May, 2025, the 30-year-old bounced back nicely, grabbing his own stoppage win over Erik Robles in December. He’ll look to make it two in a row this weekend, when he takes on Leonardo Carrillo on Saturday night at USC Galen Center in Los Angeles on the undercard of Lester Martinez vs. Luka Plantic.

From Cardenas’ point of view, as long as he racks up the victories, there’s a chance that he could eventually be standing across the ring from Inoue once again.

“I just gotta keep winning,” he said. “Maybe I can fight for an interim title. On a personal level, I like the interim titles. A lot of people don’t like them, but I like them because it gives you a chance to be a world champion. I’m trying to snatch the interim title, then see what Inoue is going to do or me and Inoue can do it again. I’d be willing to do that.”