SLOW-COOKED SUPERFIGHT
he defeated Armenia’s rugged Azat “Crazy A” Hovhannisyan, who had also sparred with Inoue. And according to an insider, if Canelo Alvarez decides not to appear in the ring in May, the fight between Inoue and Picasso may take place on Cinco de Mayo weekend. Other dates being considered include May 17 and May 31. Inoue will be a huge favorite, but American fans and media will be excited by The Monster’s first appearance in an American ring in a long time. And, of course, Picasso’s camp doesn’t expect their young fighter
Alalshikh, who is eager to see a fight between Inoue and Ball (21-0-1, 12 KOs). If Inoue challenges Britain’s gutsy WBA featherweight beltholder, he will be attempting to become a five-division world titleholder, having previously won major belts at junior flyweight and junior bantamweight, and becoming undisputed at bantamweight and junior featherweight. That, again, doesn’t mean the aforementioned fight with Nakatani will be shelved. For now, the plan for Inoue is to
to lose easily, even if the opponent is Japan’s premier champion. “Picasso is definitely a lead candidate for Inoue’s next opponent, so let’s see what will happen. It’s on the table,” Rene Aviles, who promotes Picasso for Zanfer Promotions, told The Ring. “Obviously Picasso is not as powerful as Inoue, but he’s a very clever boxer. Picasso’s chance is outboxing Inoue. Let’s see if he can accomplish that. He definitely won’t knock Inoue out, so he has to outbox him. We know the odds are against us, but we
only fight one time at featherweight and then return to the junior featherweight division. “I plan to have four fights this year,” Inoue told the Japanese media at a press conference the day after the Kim fight. “I think [my conditioning would allow me to] move up to the featherweight division and still drop back down to [the 122-pound division].” Inoue, who entered the ring against Kim at his heaviest weight to date, 138.6 pounds, has no intention of avoiding a fight with Nakatani. Hideyuki Ohashi, president of Ohashi Gym and Inoue’s
Nakatani’s immediate challenge is to decide who among the all-Japanese bantamweight world titleholders – Tsutsumi (WBC), Yoshiki Takei (WBO) and Ryosuke Nishida (IBF) – he can face in a unification fight. “There has been a lot of talk about our head-to-head matchup, and lately I’ve been watching Inoue’s fights while imagining what it would be like if I were to face him. [But] I think my fight against Inoue will be sometime next year,” Nakatani admitted. “To fight on an equal footing with Inoue, I need to have a lot of skills up my sleeve, and I need to improve the accuracy of each of them.” Again, based on what we’ve heard from both camps, it seems likely that we’ll have to wait until 2026 for the Japanese megafight, but don't be discouraged. At 31, even after winning more than 20 world title fights and
breaking his own Japanese record with 10 consecutive knockout wins with major belts on the line, Inoue still wants to get back in the ring more often and has some exciting plans for 2025. At press time, the plan was for Inoue to fight the WBC’s No. 1 contender, Alan Picasso (No. 5 in The Ring’s rankings) in May, and then WBA mandatory challenger Murodjon “MJ” Akhmadaliev in the fall. It makes sense geographically to fight Picasso (31-0-1, 17 KOs) in Las Vegas and Akhmadaliev (13-1, 10 KOs) in Saudi Arabia. Top Rank, which represents both Inoue and Nakatani in the U.S., is putting a lot of promotional and marketing muscle behind Inoue’s return to Las Vegas. His first fight in the U.S. since 2021 is sure to be a big event and will require a venue that can accommodate more than 10,000 people, with the T-Mobile Arena and
Nakatani decks challenger Petch Sor Chitpattana in Tokyo.
promoter in Japan, feels the same way, and he explains Inoue’s future plans as follows: “Even if Naoya moves up to featherweight and beats Ball, he will have to go back to [122], because there still will be an opponent he needs to fight there.” Of course, it’s unclear whether things will go as smoothly as planned, but Inoue’s camp has a blueprint for the next four fights. In the boxing world, looking too far into the future is no good, but if anyone can do that, it might be The Monster. Picasso, Akhmadaliev, Ball
also believe Picasso has a shot. At the very least, we have a much better shot than this last challenger, Kim.” If Inoue prioritizes a fight with Picasso, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, who wants Inoue vs. Akhmadaliev to happen sooner, may ask the WBA to strip Inoue of that title. If that happens, MJ will be promoted from interim to full titleholder. The Inoue-Akhmadaliev fight may be a bit political and become a “unification” fight. Or Hearn and Akhmadaliev, albeit reluctantly, might step aside one last time. Assuming Inoue wins those two fights, his camp is considering moving up to featherweight at the end of the year and fighting Nick Ball. One of the key players is Saudi Arabia’s Turki
MGM Grand Garden Arena among the candidates. “Another great performance by our champion here,” Top Rank Chairman Bob Arum said in the ring after the Inoue-Kim fight. “I observed that the great country of Japan has given [baseball player Shohei] Ohtani to Los Angeles. And at least for one fight, the great country of Japan will give the great Inoue to the city of Las Vegas this spring.” The rangy, 5-foot-8 Picasso, who is studying for a master's degree in neuroanatomy at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, is popular in his country as an intellectual boxer. His breakout fight was last August, when
Possible Inoue opponents Alan Picasso (top left), Murodjon Akhmadaliev (middle right) and Nick Ball (bottom left) in recent fights.
and Nakatani. Inoue’s brilliant career is probably drawing to an end, but the biggest challenges are yet to come.
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