The Monster is coming to Las Vegas.
Naoya Inoue, the undefeated Japanese boxing star known as Kaibutsu (怪物), confirmed his plans for a spring fight in the United States after meting out a four-round destruction of South Korea’s Ye Joon Kim on Friday night to strengthen his claim as the world’s finest boxer regardless of weight.
Inoue (29-0, 26 KO) laid bare the gulf in class between the fighters from the opening bell at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena, picking the overmatched challenger apart before dropping him for good with a left-right combination near the end of the fourth round to retain his WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO titles at 122lb.
“Yes, 2025 will be a big year for me to go to overseas countries to have a fight,” Inoue said afterward through a translator. “In spring of 2025 I’ll be going to Las Vegas to show you the great match.”
The four-weight champion then confirmed: “I am planning to have fights in Las Vegas and Saudi Arabia this year.”
The 32-year-old Kim (21-3-2, 13 KO), a replacement opponent who took Friday’s fight on less than two weeks’ notice after the Australian contender Sam Goodman suffered a cut during training, proved no match for Inoue’s stabbing jab, blinding hand speed and twitchy in-and-out movement. The champion began ramping up the pace from the second round, committed to a costly body attack in the third before uncorking the decisive left-right combination in the fourth that dumped the challenger to the canvas in the final minute. Kim was unable to beat the 10-count, prompting referee Mark Nelson to wave it off at the 2:25 mark.
“My opponent changed at the last minute and I didn’t have much time to prepare for him, so I thought I would take time to see how it went in the ring,” said Inoue, who improved to a remarkable 24-0 with 22 knockouts in world championship fights. “Overall, I think it was a good performance.”
Inoue’s 10th consecutive win inside the distance was the latest sensational finish for the 5ft 5in knockout merchant from Kanagawa prefecture, who captured his first world title at 108lb in only his sixth professional fight before adding another belt at 115lbs, then becoming the undisputed champion at 118lb and 122lb over a 378-day span. Since then he has been widely regarded as no worse than No 3 on pound-for-pound lists alongside Terence Crawford and Oleksandr Usyk.
It’s been a destructive upward surge through boxing’s lower weight classes not seen since Manny Pacquiao’s prime. Now the 31-year-old will take the show on the road for the first time in nearly four years. Potential opponents include Mexico’s Alan Picasso, the World Boxing Council’s top-ranked contender at junior featherweight, or fellow Japanese fighter Junto Nakatani, the WBC bantamweight champion based out of Los Angeles.
“I don’t know how complete I am as a boxer,” Inoue said. “I want to keep training so that I can keep improving until the end of my career.”
