RINGSIDE card that featured Haney’s last bout). Rodriguez has been on a two-bout-per- year schedule since 2023. It’s worse for his elite American peers. Stevenson and Haney have been on a one- or two-bout- per-year schedule since 2020. Benavidez has been fighting once or twice a year since 2017, which is criminal. These young guns are in their primes. Barring serious injury, there’s no reason for more than six months to elapse between their ring appearances. With that said, here are my thoughts on the aforementioned foursome’s current situations, as well as a few additional candidates for the 2026 Fighter of the Year award. Frontrunner(s) – Nobody. Inoue/Rodriguez – The winner of this much-talked about showdown would be a slam-dunk selection for Fighter of the Year, but I doubt we get this battle for pound-for-pound supremacy in 2026. I think Bam’s trainer/manager Robert Garcia knows his star pupil isn’t quite ready for the Japanese superstar (or junior featherweight), so it looks like Rodriguez will return in October or November, possibly in a 118-pound title unification bout with Christian Medina. Inoue, who outpointed Nakatani in May, doesn’t have a fight scheduled. He and his father/trainer, Shingo, have gone on record about “needing a rest” (understandable, given The Monster’s four bouts in 2025). Benavidez – The three-division world titleholder was in an excellent position to separate himself from his peers after winning two cruiserweight belts with his six-round demolition of Ramirez in May. The 29-year-old buzz saw, who also holds a 175-pound strap, had his choice of two Ring champs to go after – Dmitry Bivol (at light heavyweight) or Jai Opetaia (at cruiserweight).
award categories is easier because they can be won by fighters of all levels. Prospects are promising but unproven newcomers. By definition, Upset and Comeback of the Year awards go to often unrated underdogs and past-prime veterans. Two relatively unskilled fighters can deliver the Round of the Year. A leading candidate for 2026 Fight of the Year is William Crolla’s up-from- the-canvas (four times) seventh-round stoppage of Glenn Byrne, a battle between two British domestic-level junior middleweight prospects. (Check it out on YouTube if you haven’t seen it.) But Fighter of the Year is reserved for the cream of the crop. From January to June, the cream that’s risen above other standouts consists of Stevenson, Inoue, Benavidez and Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez. All four shone brightly in their one fight so far, but none stands clearly above the other, and, as we went to press, none had finalized a second bout for 2026. Stevenson’s situation is particularly frustrating. The southpaw maestro has the ability to compete in three weight classes – lightweight, junior welterweight and welterweight – and significant bouts can be made in each division, but he seems content to bide his time with verbal spats. Over the past six months, Stevenson has jawed back and forth with Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia and O’Shaquie Foster, among others – sometimes to their faces right after their fights, but mostly on social media – and nothing has come of the chatter. Meanwhile, the buzz created with his near-shutout of Lopez in January has dissipated into exasperation among hardcore fans. Those same diehards aren’t irritated with the soft-spoken Rodriguez, the most humble of America’s headliners. They just want to see more of the former Ring junior bantamweight champ, who exhibited his usual brilliance en route to stopping Antonio Vargas for a bantamweight strap on June 13. Prior to this latest triumph, which made Rodriguez a three-division world titleholder, we hadn’t seen him since November (on the same Riyadh Season
Naoya Inoue defeated Junto Nakatani in May, but what’s next?
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