With Naoya Inoue teasing a move up to 126lbs, he may favour an immediate world title shot over his potential mega fight with Jesse Rodriguez.

The Japanese star is looking to return in February or March of next year, having not fought since his unanimous decision triumph over Junto Nakatani.

Back then, in May, Inoue retained his undisputed super-bantamweight crown with arguably a career-best victory, before insisting that he would not fight for the remainder of this year.

Instead, his plan was to prepare for a 2027 showdown against Rodriguez, who dethroned Antonio Vargas with a sixth-round knockout for the WBA bantamweight title in June.

In doing so, ‘Bam’ became a three-division world champion and could enter a unification match with WBO belt-holder Christian Medina later this year.

The idea would then be to face Inoue at 122lbs, yet it seems the 33-year-old is growing increasingly impatient and could move up to featherweight sooner than later.

If he chooses to do so, then the ‘Monster’ may have the chance to become a five-division world champion against Bruce Carrington, who has told FightHype that he would gladly defend his WBC title against the modern great.

“I would love to fight Inoue. He’s one of the greats in boxing right now and one of the best pound-for-pound boxers – why would I not [want to fight him]?

“He’s talking about coming up to featherweight, so why not get it on with me?”

As an unbeaten champion, Carrington is coming off a successful first title defence in July, when he unanimously outpointed Mexican challenger Rene Palacios.