The Japanese ‘Monster’ is plotting a different course. WBA Super and IBF bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue now seems destined to face Australia’s Jason Moloney in either October or November after a planned unification with WBO king John Riel Casimero fell through.
The Inoue-Casimero unification was scheduled to take place on April 25 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, but the economic chaos caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic scotched that fight.
Japan’s Inoue (19-0, 16 KOs) now seems likely to face a fellow Top Rank promoted fighter in Moloney (21-1, 18 KOs), last seen halting Leonardo Baez in seven rounds in June, according to ESPN.com.
Meanwhile, Filipino Casimero (29-4, 20 KOs) will now meet Ghanaian Duke Micah (24-0, 19 KOs) at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut, on September 26.
Both the Inoue and Casimero camps hope a unification can be revisited in 2021 with the financial boost of a live gate.
“Everything’s on the table,” Sean Gibbons of MP Promotions told ESPN.com’s Steve Kim. “But we’re not going to sit around and wait for it any more. We’re a WBO world champion. We don’t wait for anybody. We did, but those days are over. We control our own destiny. If that fight presents itself again, it will be reviewed.”
