Paul Butler has fired a blunt warning to Naoya Inoue as he goes in search of boxing immortality in December.
Inoue will attempt to become undisputed world bantamweight champion when he faces Butler at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday, December 13. The Japanese hero holds the IBF, WBA and WBC belts and wants to clean up the division before moving up in weight – but two-time world champion Butler holds the missing piece of the puzzle.
Butler (34-2, 15 KOs), won the WBO interim title in April with a unanimous points victory over Jonas Sultan and was then upgraded to full champion after John Riel Casimero was stripped of the belt. And the 33-year-old heads to the Land of the Rising Sun, fully intent on becoming boxing’s first undisputed bantamweight champion in half a century and scoring one of the biggest away wins by a British fighter ever.
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He said: “I’ve been boxing for over 20 years and all the successes and set-backs have led me here, to the biggest fight of my career, with the biggest prize in the sport on offer.
“I am under no illusions as to the size of the task that faces me, but I have been going to bed dreaming of becoming the undisputed bantamweight champion of the world.
“Inoue is a phenomenal fighter but not one person should be underestimating me, my skills, or my resolve. I am going to Japan to write my name into the history of our sport.”
The show will be promoted by Ohashi Promotion and Teiken Promotions in association with Probellum, and Richard Schaefer, president of Probellum, is looking forward to watching Butler carve out history in East Asia.
He said: “It does not get any bigger than this, but Paul Butler is ready to carve out history, cause a seismic upset and return home as the undisputed world bantamweight champion.
“We all appreciate how good Naoya Inoue is, we have seen it repeatedly, but the people who really know Paul, know what he is made of and the greater the challenge, the greater his performance will be.”
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