Cinco de Mayo has always been a target date for massive boxing events throughout history. Fighters such as Julio Cesar Chavez, Canelo Alvarez and Floyd Mayweather often book that date given the significance it holds for the Mexican culture in both history and combat sports.
While Canelo won’t be in action this time around, boxing has four major title fights going down this weekend that will truly satisfy fight fans’ cravings for fisticuffs.
Kicking things off very early — at 3 a.m. ET, to be exact — is what is being dubbed the biggest fight in Japanese boxing history: Naoya “The Monster” Inoue defending his WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, WBO and The Ring Super Bantamweight belts against Junto Nakatani, who is undefeated (32-0) with 24 knockouts and is the current WBC, IBF and The Ring Bantamweight kingpin.
Inoue is one of the best pound-for-pound best boxers on the planet and undoubtedly the most decorated Japanese boxer ever with a record of 32-0 with 27 knockouts. The fight is set to go down inside The Tokyo Dome, which houses more than 55,000 fans, and reports have stated that the event is a complete sellout. In the co-main event, Takuma Inoue (21-2) defends his WBC Bantamweight title against four-division champion, Kazuto Ioka (32-4-1), on DAZN PPV.
Later in the evening on, also on DAZN PPV, current WBC and WBA Light Heavyweight champion, David “The Mexican Monster” Benavidez, moves up to Cruiserweight for one the biggest fights of his career, challenging current WBA (Super) and WBO champion, Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, who comes in with a record of 48-1 with 30 knockouts. Benavidez has been adamant that he is not afraid to take on all challengers, and moving up in weight class against “Zurdo” is proof that he is willing to walk-the-walk.