Naoya Inoue facing undefeated US star now ‘inevitable’: “One of the biggest fights in boxing”

Eddie Hearn has named one fight that he feels is “inevitable” for Naoya Inoue, who must first defend his undisputed super-bantamweight crown against Junto Nakatani.

Their all-Japanese dustup will take place at the Tokyo Dome on May 2, with a full-capacity crowd of 55,000 expected to be in attendance.

Such is the level of intrigue attached to their encounter, which many believe represents the toughest test of Inoue’s career thus far.

Up to this point, ‘The Monster’ has won the majority of his fights in one-sided fashion, while nonetheless becoming a two-division undisputed champion.

He did, of course, suffer knockdowns against Luis Nery and Ramon Cardenas, but ultimately climbed off the canvas to win both fights by stoppage.

Even in his first encounter with Nonito Donaire, in 2019, Inoue showed tremendous guts and guile to eventually grind out a unanimous decision victory.

Against Nakatani, the 33-year-old may be compelled to overcome similar spells of adversity, but is heavily favoured to retain his four major titles at 122lbs.

Hoping to eventually face the Japanese star, meanwhile, is Jesse Rodriguez, who bids to become a three-division world champion against WBA bantamweight titlist Antonio Vargas on June 13.

Should ‘Bam’ emerge triumphant, then Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn will likely extend his talks with Turki Alalshikh for a potential Inoue fight.

“There [have] been some early preliminary conversations with [Alalshikh] about Inoue against ‘Bam’, and I do think that fight is inevitable.

“I don’t think it’s going to be necessarily straight after the Vargas fight, but it could be in the next two or three fights.

“It’s probably one of the biggest fights in boxing. It’s one that ‘Bam’ likes the idea of.”

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While moving up to 118lbs for his next outing, Rodruguez remains the unified world super-flyweight champion and could therefore chase an undisputed clash with the winner of Willibaldo Garcia vs Andrew Moloney, which takes place on June 6.