Naoya Inoue wasted to time in conquering the super-bantamweight division after making the move up last year, becoming the undisputed champion in just two contests at 122lbs. However, just nine months after the arguable pound-for-pound number one completed his collection at the weight – it appears as though Inoue’s run as the four-belt champion may come to an end.
‘The Monster’ vacated his undisputed bantamweight crown to move up to super-bantamweight and faced poster boy of the division, Stephen Fulton, on his debut in the division, delivering a career-best performance and a knockout win over the American that thrust his name further into global superstardom. Five months later, Inoue repeated the feat against Marlos Tapales to pick up the remaining WBC and WBO straps, to become boxing’s second multi-division undisputed champion since the dawn of the four-belt era.
In a first defence of the undisputed title, Inoue went toe-to-toe with Luis Nery in a grudge match where the Mexican challenger’s ban from fighting in Japan had to be lifted in order to allow the contest to go ahead. Inoue was shockingly knocked down in the opening round but showed all the character and composure of the future Hall-of-famer that he is and managed to recover and stop Nery in the sixth.
In recent days, Inoue seemed poised to take on former unified champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev after the WBA called for purse bids for the affair. However, Top Rank Promoter Bob Arum told Boxing Scene that Inoue will instead opt for a showdown with Irish-born TJ Doheny – who has become a fan-favourite in Japan, as Arum admitted that stripping Inoue will have little impact due to his plans to move to featherweight next year.
“[Doheny] has become a big, big draw over there, and that matters.
“Look at what Luis Nery did as the bad boy [following a positive PED test], helping sell out the Tokyo Dome.
“Worse comes to worst, [Inoue] loses the WBA title … and that’s a ‘who cares?’ anyway, because the plan is for [Inoue] to fight at 122 this year and then move to 126 [featherweight] next year.
Inoue had been linked to a scrap with Akhmadaliev on the Joshua-Dubois undercard at Wembley Stadium, which is set to be announced on Wednesday 26th June, yet that idea seems to have been declined in favour of Inoue-Doheny on September 9th which would likely do huge numbers in his native country.
Before the end of the year, the Japanese sensation is also expected to fight IBF mandatory challenger Sam Goodman in his final outing at super-bantamweight, although Inoue could adopt a similar approach to his WBA snub depending on the strenuousness of the clash with Doheny.
Following that, Inoue will assumably continue his extraordinary run of consecutive world title contests and debut at featherweight against one of the world champions – Rafael Espinoza (WBO), Luis Alberto Lopez (IBF), Rey Vargas (WBC) or Nick Ball (WBA).
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