LOS ANGELES — The tag team tandem of The Ring's 2024 Fighter of the Year Finalist, Junto Nakatani, and The Ring’s Trainer of the Year finalist, Rudy Hernandez, realizes that they have to blaze their trail and not necessarily wait for their night against Naoya Inoue.

Inoue showed in his come-from-behind knockout win against Ramon Cardenas earlier this month that monstrous plans can dramatically shift with a single punch.

Nakatani, the WBC 118-pound champion, and Inoue, the undisputed 122-pound champion, are set to square off in a super fight in Japan next year. But until then, Inoue has planned fights against Murodjon Akhmadaliev and Nick Ball.

Nakatani (30-0, 23 KOS) is next set to face IBF bantamweight title holder Ryosuke Nishida (10-0, 2 KOs) on June 8, with the vacant Ring title on the line as well. The fight will likely be the last for Nakatani at 118 pounds.

As the Inoue fight takes shape, Hernandez envisions jumping up two weight classes to face the WBO 126-pound crown holder Rafael Espinoza and forcing Inoue, who plans on finishing his career as a featherweight, to meet his countryman there.

“I would love to go straight to a Rafael Espinoza fight for the WBO featherweight title,” Hernandez told The Ring after a training session with Nakatani at the L.A. Boxing Gym. “It’s a great fight because you have two very tall and talented fighters going against each other. It would give Junto a bigger status. He would wow the people.

“If we’re not going to get Inoue, we can go to Espinoza. If they offer us that fight, we will take it in a heartbeat. And Inoue can come fight us at 126 for the featherweight title.

“There is a reason Naoya Inoue is considered No. 1 in the world, depending on who you ask. I consider him the best in the world because he’s constantly fighting and moving up in weight. It’s his time right now. Are there flaws? Yes. Muhammad Ali got dropped. Sugar Ray Robinson got dropped. All of these great fighters who were great at one time got dropped. But they got up and did what champions do. They get up and survive, fight hard, and win.

“Inoue and Nakatani are on the same freeway, travelling in different lanes. If our roads cross, they cross. We’ll be ready. But nothing else matters unless we’re successful on June 8.”

Earlier this month, Inoue took offense to Hernandez’s recent comments in The Ring that they want to face Inoue next before he gets older and damaged by more wars.

“We would rather fight Inoue now than tomorrow,” Hernandez told The Ring. “I want to get a better version of Inoue than an older version. If we wait until next year, the excuse will be that Inoue got older. There is more credit to it if we beat him now. Anytime a fighter gets a bit older, that's the first excuse. They'll say, ‘It would have been different if he were younger.’”

The offended Inoue offered a retort.

"Hey Rudy, a year from now, I'll still be in my prime. No excuses. No one's getting weaker. I'll still go see the view from above," said Inoue in a tweet in a post on X, translated from Japanese to English.