Inoue's plans to include a temporary move to Featherweight?
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On Friday we saw Undisputed Super Bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (29-0, 26) retain his world titles, stopping South Korean Ye Joon Kim (21-3-2, 13) [김예준] in the 4th round of a bout that was put together on short notice as Kim filled in for the injured Sam Goodman (19-0, 8). Over the weekend that followed Inoue was part of a press conference in Japan that saw him talk about his plans for the next year or so. Whilst nothing is set in stone, and this is boxing so things can change as we saw with Goodman being injured for two planned Inoue dates, Inoue did explain that he was hoping to have "four fights this year."
One of the fights, obviously, was his clash with Kim. The plan then is fore 3 more bouts this year, one in Las Vegas, in Spring, one in Saudi Arabia and one in Japan at the end of the year.
At the press conference 4 names were brought up, though one of them seems likely to be in 2026 given previous comments by both Inoue, Ohashi and the fighter himself.
The first name brought up for Inoue later this year was WBC mandatory challenger Alan Picasso Romero (31-0-1, 17), a tall, and rangy Mexican fighter who stands at 5’8”, is unbeaten and at 24 is still very much a growing and developing fighter. He has climbed up the rankings relatively slow, since debuting back in 2017, but at just 24 his slow climb has been an intelligent one by his team who have given him time to develop, gain experience and prepare to face the top fighters at 122lbs. Despite his long unbeaten record, and the fact he fought 5 times in 2024, his record is a bit thin. His best wins to date have been over the likes of Diego Alberto Ruiz, Azat Hovhannisyan, Damien Vazquez, Kevin Villanueva, serviceable contenders but not top divisional fighters.
The second name was WBA mandatory challenger Murodjon Akhmadaliev (13-1, 10), the Uzbekistani who was the former WBA/IBF champion and is the current WBA “interim” champion. Akhmadaliev’s promoter Eddie Heard was loudly heard begging for the fight back in December in Monaco, following Akmadaliev’s win over Ricardo Espinoza Franco. Sadly since losing the WBA and IBF titles to Marlojn Tapales in 2023 Akhmadaliev's career has been on a go slow with wins over Kevin Gonzalez and Ricardo Espinoza being his only fights in the last 20 months, and they were pretty much a year apart themselves. Although the most proven Super Bantamweight linked to an Inoue fight he is close to 5 years removed from a top level win, over Daniel Roman, and it’s hard to know what the 30 year old can still do at the top level.
The third name was a bit of a surprise, as Inoue’s Hideyuki Ohashi explained Riyadh Season had suggest Inoue move up in weight, and face off with WBA Featherweight champion Nick Ball (21-0-1, 12), potentially in Saudi Arabia, in what would be a temporary move to 126lbs for Inoue. The plan would then be to move back to 122lbs for his next fight, and if he were to beat Ball, as expected, he’d have become a 5 weight champion, something only one other Japanese fighter has ever done, with that being Naoko Fujioka. On paper an Inoue Vs Ball fight would be great fun, with Inoue's fantastic technical ability ad frightening power going up against the engine, tenacity and work rate of Ball. The aggression of Ball would give Inoue lot of counter opportunities, and be a rare case of Inoue taking on a fighter who would be coming to him and throwing a lot of shots at him, something we don't regularly see.
The move back to 122lbs would be for the final man mentioned, fellow unbeaten Japanese star Junto Nakatani (29-0, 22) [中谷 潤人].
Interestingly Kim joined Inoue at the end of the press conference, with the two smiling together and it seemed like Ohashi was planning another bout in Japan for the Korean who promised to not “provoke” Inoue again, something he was made to pay for in their bout. It seems unclear when Ohashi would bring Kim back to Japan, but the legendary Japanese promoter does have plenty of fighters from 118lbs to 126lbs that could face Kim, with Kim himself joking suggesting he’d like to fight Naoya’s younger brother Takuma Inoue (20-2, 5) [井上拓真].
One of the fights, obviously, was his clash with Kim. The plan then is fore 3 more bouts this year, one in Las Vegas, in Spring, one in Saudi Arabia and one in Japan at the end of the year.
At the press conference 4 names were brought up, though one of them seems likely to be in 2026 given previous comments by both Inoue, Ohashi and the fighter himself.
The first name brought up for Inoue later this year was WBC mandatory challenger Alan Picasso Romero (31-0-1, 17), a tall, and rangy Mexican fighter who stands at 5’8”, is unbeaten and at 24 is still very much a growing and developing fighter. He has climbed up the rankings relatively slow, since debuting back in 2017, but at just 24 his slow climb has been an intelligent one by his team who have given him time to develop, gain experience and prepare to face the top fighters at 122lbs. Despite his long unbeaten record, and the fact he fought 5 times in 2024, his record is a bit thin. His best wins to date have been over the likes of Diego Alberto Ruiz, Azat Hovhannisyan, Damien Vazquez, Kevin Villanueva, serviceable contenders but not top divisional fighters.
The second name was WBA mandatory challenger Murodjon Akhmadaliev (13-1, 10), the Uzbekistani who was the former WBA/IBF champion and is the current WBA “interim” champion. Akhmadaliev’s promoter Eddie Heard was loudly heard begging for the fight back in December in Monaco, following Akmadaliev’s win over Ricardo Espinoza Franco. Sadly since losing the WBA and IBF titles to Marlojn Tapales in 2023 Akhmadaliev's career has been on a go slow with wins over Kevin Gonzalez and Ricardo Espinoza being his only fights in the last 20 months, and they were pretty much a year apart themselves. Although the most proven Super Bantamweight linked to an Inoue fight he is close to 5 years removed from a top level win, over Daniel Roman, and it’s hard to know what the 30 year old can still do at the top level.
The third name was a bit of a surprise, as Inoue’s Hideyuki Ohashi explained Riyadh Season had suggest Inoue move up in weight, and face off with WBA Featherweight champion Nick Ball (21-0-1, 12), potentially in Saudi Arabia, in what would be a temporary move to 126lbs for Inoue. The plan would then be to move back to 122lbs for his next fight, and if he were to beat Ball, as expected, he’d have become a 5 weight champion, something only one other Japanese fighter has ever done, with that being Naoko Fujioka. On paper an Inoue Vs Ball fight would be great fun, with Inoue's fantastic technical ability ad frightening power going up against the engine, tenacity and work rate of Ball. The aggression of Ball would give Inoue lot of counter opportunities, and be a rare case of Inoue taking on a fighter who would be coming to him and throwing a lot of shots at him, something we don't regularly see.
The move back to 122lbs would be for the final man mentioned, fellow unbeaten Japanese star Junto Nakatani (29-0, 22) [中谷 潤人].
Interestingly Kim joined Inoue at the end of the press conference, with the two smiling together and it seemed like Ohashi was planning another bout in Japan for the Korean who promised to not “provoke” Inoue again, something he was made to pay for in their bout. It seems unclear when Ohashi would bring Kim back to Japan, but the legendary Japanese promoter does have plenty of fighters from 118lbs to 126lbs that could face Kim, with Kim himself joking suggesting he’d like to fight Naoya’s younger brother Takuma Inoue (20-2, 5) [井上拓真].