Sports
Naoya Inoue targeted for super fight by pound-for-pound star: “He’s the biggest challenge”
Naoya Inoue is regarded by many to be the pound-for-pound king, but now there is a fellow multi-divisional world champion who is eyeing up a fight with the Japanese phenomenon, even targeting a clash with his brother first.
Inoue has ruled supreme in four weight classes but it is his recent efforts at bantamweight and super-bantamweight, where he became a two-division undisputed world champion, that have forced the world to take notice.
After claiming all four belts at 118lbs, he stepped up to 122lbs in 2023 and needed just two bouts to dethrone both unified titleholders and become the second multi-weight undisputed champion of the four-belt era.
Now, ‘The Monster’ is set for his toughest task to date, as he takes on unbeaten countryman Junto Nakatani on Saturday, May 2, at the Tokyo Dome in a historic event for Japanese boxing.
Should he come through that test unscathed, unified super-flyweight champion Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez told The Ring that he is willing to face both of the Inoue brothers in the near future, ahead of a move up to bantamweight.
“The best fight to make for Bam at 118 right now is against the WBC champion, Takuma Inoue.
“That would be very exciting, to beat Takuma and then face the brother, Naoya, in a big fight.
“That’s a great fight and a great plan to look forward to and very well could be a possibility.
“The biggest challenge for Bam in the future is Naoya Inoue. He’s not going to hold back too long before going up against someone like him.”
Takuma Inoue won the vacant WBC bantamweight title with a victory over Tenshin Nasukawa in November, and a clash against Rodriguez could indeed pave the way to a future battle between ‘Bam’ and Naoya Inoue. Boxing News understands that Takuma is set to fight on the Inoue-Nakatani undercard against Kazuto Ioka.