Naoya Inoue is set to head back to the United States for a fight in Las Vegas this spring.
The reigning men’s undisputed super-bantamweight world champion has not competed in the USA since June 2021, when he retained his unified bantamweight world titles with a third-round knockout of Michael Dasmarinas at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
Inoue had stopped Jason Moloney at the MGM Grand eight months earlier, also emphatically beating Antonio Nieves at Dignity Health Sports Park in California on what was an impressive Stateside debut in September 2017.
Aside from those three fights and an early knockout of Emmanuel Rodriguez in Glasgow in May 2019, every other contest in ‘The Monster’s’ 29-fight professional career to date has come on home soil in Japan, including Friday’s fourth-round stoppage of South Korea’s Ye Joon Kim - a late replacement opponent for Sam Goodman - that saw him retain his super-bantamweight belts for the third time.
However, after his latest knockout win promoter and Top Rank chief Bob Arum reiterated that Inoue would be heading back to the US after a near four-year absence this spring as part of huge plans for 2025.
"I just want to say another great performance by our champion here," Arum said in the ring after Inoue stopped the overmatched Kim with a devastating straight right hand in round four.
"And I observed that the great country of Japan has given (baseball star) [Shohei] Ohtani to the city of Los Angeles, and at least for one fight, the great country of Japan will give this great Inoue to the city of Las Vegas for one fight this spring."
Arum had previously confirmed that the likely opponent for Inoue’s US return would be Mexican Alan David Picasso, the WBC’s mandatory challenger at super-bantamweight and current holder of their silver title.
If that fight takes place then it remains to be seen what will happen to Inoue’s WBA title, with Matchroom’s former champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev of Uzbekistan the current mandatory challenger for that belt.
Inoue also remains on track for a huge fight in Saudi Arabia later this year, but the potential opponent for that remains unclear.
It is hoped that he and fellow undefeated Japanese superstar - the reigning WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani - will face off in a mammoth contest at the Tokyo Dome in the future, with Arum planning to have both fight on the same card in the US first.
Nakatani - who would have to move up a division to fight Inoue - is next in action on February 25, when he defends his belt against Mexican David Cuellar in Tokyo.
