{"id":695613,"date":"2026-07-16T22:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/695613\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T22:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:46:11","slug":"naoya-inoue-targeted-for-title-fight-to-become-a-five-weight-world-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/695613\/","title":{"rendered":"Naoya Inoue targeted for title fight to become a five-weight world champion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A featherweight move seems inevitable for <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/naoya-inoue\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Naoya Inoue<\/a> in 2027, with each of the 126lb world champions hoping to secure a lucrative showdown boxing\u2019s pound-for-pound king. Now, one reigning featherweight world champion has admitted that he has eyes on a meeting with \u2018The Monster\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Inoue has ruled in four weight divisions thus far but has been linked with a featherweight move for over a year now, with victory in his legendary May bout with Junto Nakatani having been expected to prompt a move up in weight.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, despite being victorious in the biggest fight in the history of Japanese boxing, Inoue has delayed his move to the featherweight scene by seemingly pursuing a fight with newly crowned WBA bantamweight world champion, Jesse \u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/bam-rodriguez-vs-inoue-plans-stall\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">That clash is anticipated to take place in early 2027<\/a>, with Inoue continuing up to featherweight thereafter. Now, WBA featherweight ruler, Brandon Figueroa, has declared his interest in a fight with Inoue, but told <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Tfm5dy46mIk?si=ujIBn0KR4CszF_5y\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pro Box TV<\/a> that his attention is currently on another Japanese featherweight title hopeful, Tomoki Kameda, whom he expects to face next.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course [we can see me fight Inoue], why not? I feel like that is a very doable fight and I don\u2019t know, it might be in the works, but as of right now, [I am focussed on] Tomoki Kameda.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy older brother [Omar Figueroa Jnr] also faced a Japanese fighter and they went to war, Nihito Arakawa, it was for the 135lb Interim WBC belt if I can remember. Japan is pretty familiar with me and my brother because that fight was the Fight of the Year, my brother ended up breaking both of his hands but ended up winning the belt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a war, I would recommend any fighter to watch that fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Boxing News understands that Figueroa-Kameda could take place in Japan this October, as \u2018The Heartbreaker\u2019 attempts to make a first defence of his title since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/cwygyrn2elno\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">dethroning Nick Ball in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Should Kameda pull off the upset, he would no doubt become the frontrunner as the potential opponent for Inoue\u2019s eventual 126lb debut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A featherweight move seems inevitable for Naoya Inoue in 2027, with each of the 126lb world champions hoping&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-695613","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\/695613","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=695613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}