{"id":380847,"date":"2026-01-01T05:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T05:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/380847\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T05:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T05:04:09","slug":"whats-next-for-the-monster-after-dominant-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/380847\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Next For \u201cThe Monster\u201d After Dominant 2025?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Naoya Inoue has continued his run as one of the most dominant boxers of our generation last Saturday (Dec. 27, 2025) by defeating David Picasso via unanimous decision in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in a one-sided victory to retain his WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring Super Bantamweight titles and status as undisputed champion (highlights here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

From the jump it was evident that Picasso \u2013 who was undefeated coming into the fight at 32-0-1 \u2013 was in for a long night as \u201cThe Monster\u201d implemented his aggressive style and pace that makes him one of the most dangerous fighters in the game today.<\/p>\n

The win was Inoue\u2019s fourth of 2025, a remarkable run that is rarely seen at the highest level of boxing from a title holder who is obviously never backs down from a challenge. Still, Inoue\u2019s fourth fight in 12 months might have taken a took a toll on him, which is why he wasn\u2019t too pleased with his win.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, it\u2019s regrettable, Not meeting those expectations is extremely disappointing. Honestly, I really wanted to KO him. I think Picasso\u2019s defense was just too good. That\u2019s what it comes down to.\u201d<\/p>\n

All told, it was Inoue\u2019s sixth win in 17 months and his twenty ninth straight championship win, further cementing his status as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the game. With a run like that, the lineup for opponents for \u201cThe Monster\u201d is getting slimmer by the day, which begs the question: \u201cWhat\u2019s next?\u201d<\/p>\n

At the moment there are two candidates that fit the bill in the form of Jesse \u201cBam\u201d Rodriguez and Junto Nakatani.<\/p>\n

Nakatani is the current WBC, IBF and The Ring Bantamweight champion of the world and defeated Sebastian Hernandez on the undercard of \u201cInoue vs. Picasso\u201d via unanimous decision, improving his record to 32-0. Both men are mega stars in their native country of Japan, which would make for one of the biggest fights \u201cThe Land of the Rising Sun\u201d has ever seen.<\/p>\n

As for Rodriguez, he is the current WBC, WBO, WBA and The Ring Super Flyweight champion of the world and is undefeated at 23-0 with 16 knockouts wins. His most recent victory came against Fernando Mart\u00ednez, defeating him via unanimous decision. Of course, \u201cBam\u201d would have to move up two weight classes to make the fight happen, but it would be one of the best \u201cchampion vs champion\u201d fights that could be made at the moment.<\/p>\n

That said, who would you like to see \u201cThe Monster\u201d to face next?<\/p>\n

For more boxing news and notes click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naoya Inoue has continued his run as one of the most dominant boxers of our generation last Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[36109,49,48,641,33601,638,82],"class_list":["post-380847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-boxing-news-results","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}