{"id":569244,"date":"2026-05-06T12:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/569244\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T12:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:58:13","slug":"naoya-inoue-targeted-for-another-super-fight-against-unbeaten-star-immediately-after-nakatani-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/569244\/","title":{"rendered":"Naoya Inoue targeted for another super fight against unbeaten star immediately after Nakatani win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Naoya Inoue<\/a> has put himself in pole position for another monumental opportunity, courtesy of his unanimous decision victory over Junto Nakatani.<\/p>\n

The two Japanese stars squared off at a sold-out Tokyo Dome, with Inoue successfully defending his undisputed super-bantamweight crown.<\/a><\/p>\n

While being a sizable pre-fight favourite, \u2018The Monster\u2019 was never likely to encounter a straightforward night\u2019s work against Nakatani, who entered their much-anticipated clash as an unbeaten three-weight world champion.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, Inoue showcased his speed and elite-level jab in the early rounds, only for Nakatani to gather momentum and enjoy a dominant 10th frame.<\/p>\n

In response, though, Inoue demonstrated exactly why he is a two-division undisputed king, regaining his control in the final two sessions to claim a convincing points victory.<\/p>\n

But instead of chasing five-division world champion status at featherweight, the 33-year-old is likely to remain at 122lbs for a short while longer.<\/p>\n

This is because he is edging closer towards a blockbuster showdown with Jesse \u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez, who will face WBA world bantamweight champion Antonio Vargas on June 13.<\/a><\/p>\n

If his upcoming assignment proves successful, then the unified world super-flyweight champion is set to jump up a further weight class in pursuit of the Inoue fight.<\/p>\n

As reported by The Ring<\/a>, Turki Alalshikh is hoping to stage their undisputed super-bantamweight contest in January, so long as Inoue keeps hold of his four major belts.<\/p>\n

This would present Rodriguez with the chance to become a four-division world champion \u2013 should he defeat Vargas, that is \u2013 while being involved in arguably the most significant lower-division fight of all time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naoya Inoue has put himself in pole position for another monumental opportunity, courtesy of his unanimous decision victory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-569244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}