Naoya Inoue will defend his super bantamweight crown against unbeaten Australian contender Sam Goodman on Tuesday, Dec. 24, at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.

Inoue will make an unprecedented third defense of his undisputed crown within a single calendar year while looking to secure his 10th consecutive knockout.

Inoue-Goodman will headline a special early-morning broadcast streaming live and exclusively in the U.S. on ESPN+. In the co-feature, Yoshiki Takei (10-0, 8 KOs) will defend his WBO bantamweight world title against an opponent to be named.

Inoue (28-0, 25 KOs) began his four-belt legacy in December 2022 when he stopped Paul Butler to unify all the bantamweight titles. Then, within a little over a year, the 31-year-old knocked out WBC/WBO champ Stephen Fulton in July 2023 and WBA/IBF king Marlon Tapales that December to achieve undisputed glory in a second weight class. He made history again in May by headlining the first boxing card at the Tokyo Dome since the historic Mike Tyson-Buster Douglas showdown, overcoming a first-round knockdown before icing former two-division world champion Luis Nery in six. In September, he registered a seventh-round TKO over one-time junior featherweight king TJ Doheny.

Goodman (19-0, 8 KOs) is a 26-year-old Australian who entered the paid ranks in 2018. He went 4-0 in 2023, earning points victories over Doheny as well as then-unbeaten talents Ra’eese Aleem and Zhong Liu. He authored a fourth-round TKO against Mark Schleibs in March before decisioning previously unbeaten Thachtana Luangphon across 12 in July.

Naoya “The Monster” Inoue will make defense number two of his undisputed super bantamweight crown against former world champion TJ Doheny.

Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs), a four-division world champion and pound-for-pound standout, has made Ariake Arena his boxing home in recent years. It’s where he knocked out Paul Butler to win the undisputed bantamweight title in December 2022, defeated Stephen Fulton for two super bantamweight titles in July 2023, and dominated Marlon Tapales for the undisputed crown last December. Doheny (26-4, 20 KOs) is 4-0 when fighting on Japanese soil, including a knockout win over Bryl Bayogos on the Inoue-Luis Nery undercard at Tokyo Dome in May.

In the co-feature, WBO bantamweight world champion Yoshiki Takei (9-0, 8 KOs) will make his first title defense against former WBC flyweight champion Daigo Higa (21-2-1, 19 KOs).

Timothy Bradley, Jr. and Bernardo Osuna will call the action.

(Photo: Nauki Fukuda)

• Naoya Inoue 121 3/4 lbs. vs. Luis Nery 121 lbs

ESTIMATED RING WALK TIME: 7:35 a.m. ET/4:35 a.m. PT
(Inoue's Undisputed Junior Featherweight World Title - 12 Rounds)
Referee: Michael Griffin
Judges: Benoit Roussel, Jose Roberto Torres and Adam Height

• Jason Moloney 117 3/4 lbs vs. Yoshiki Takei 117 3/4 lbs
ESTIMATED RING WALK TIME: 6:25 a.m. ET/3:25 a.m. PT
(Moloney's WBO Bantamweight World Title — 12 Rounds)
Referee: Steve Willis
Judges: Benoit Roussel, Ellis Johnson and Lou Moret

• Takuma Inoue 117 3/4 lbs vs. Sho Ishida 117 3/4 lbs
ESTIMATED RING WALK TIME: 5:20 a.m. ET/2:20 a.m. PT
(Inoue's WBA Bantamweight World Title — 12 Rounds)
Referee: Luis Pabon
Judges: Pinit Prayadsab, Kazunobu Asao and Michiaki Someya

• Seigo Yuri Akui 112 lbs vs. Taku Kuwahara 112 lbs
ESTIMATED RING WALK TIME: 4:10 a.m. ET/1:10 a.m. PT
(Akui's WBA Flyweight World Title — 12 Rounds)
Referee: Raul Caiz Jr.
Judges: Pinit Prayadsab, Jose Roberto Torres and Yoshikazu Furuta 

The Japanese pound-for-pound superstar knocked out Filipino IBF/WBA champion Marlon Tapales in round 10 to capture the undisputed junior featherweight championship Tuesday at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.

With the victory, Inoue joins Terence Crawford as the only male two-weight undisputed champion in the four-belt era. A four-weight world champion, Inoue is 21-0 with 19 knockouts in title fights and has knocked out his last seven foes.

Tapales (37-4, 19 KOs), a two-weight world champion, saw his four-fight winning streak end.

Inoue said, “I am so happy that I got the knockout in such a decisive manner.

“He never showed me fatigue or damage from his face, so I was quite surprised when he went down in the 10th round.

“It was one of the most intense fights I’ve ever had, probably, but my corner cheered me up and kept me focused throughout the bout.”

Tapales, who won the unified world championship earlier this year, came out as the aggressor and attempted to slow Inoue down with a concerted body attack. Inoue responded with savage body blows, sweeping the early rounds on the scorecards. Late in the fourth, a series of left hooks dropped Tapales, who rose just before the bell sounded to end the round.

Tapales found his rhythm in the middle rounds, backing Inoue up and ripping body shots in the seventh and eighth. "The Monster" found his stride in the ninth and finished off Tapales in the 10th with a right hand that put him down for the count. The pound-for-pound king, who started his career at 108 pounds, added two more belts to his massive collection.

Which boxing match you're eager to watch but was canceled due to COVID-19?

If you're going to ask me, my answer is Naoya Inoue vs. John Riel Casimero. Why? Because for me it's an excellent matchup between two exciting combatants at their physical prime.

Although this is not a fight between two undefeated rivals, but man... I just love the firepower to be displayed in this fight.

Casimero is not an undefeated boxer.  If you look at his record, he has been defeated four times. He has a record of 29 wins, 4 losses, 20 wins by stoppages. But this guy is definitely a warrior with power on both hands.

Casimero always came up as the winner in situations that many consider he has no chance. But at times though came out losing on a match he's highly considered to win e.g. against Jonas Sultan. One thing I'm sure about Casimero, he's a battle-tested road warrior. Sa Bisaya pa, dili ni siya balay-balayon.

I don't want to say so much about Naoya Inoue, just look at his record at Boxrec. Well, Inoue has an undefeated record of 19 wins out of which; 16 of his wins by stoppage.

Naoya is skilled, talented, tough, young, powerful on both hands, and explosive finisher. To back-up, all my adjectives to this guy from Japan, just watch Inoue vs Donaire. Man... believe me I watch it 100 times. No. Maybe 5 times now. And I want to watch again every time I have the chance.

Inoue did not stop Donaire though. Because Donaire is Donaire. Donaire was the COVID test (usually we say acid test) of Inoue actually. Inoue passed the test.



Because of my disappointment why this fight is canceled (obviously because of the pandemic) and my excitement to find an update of this fight---I searched to google for update and Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports answered my question. I caught Kevin doing live on his Instagram. I asked him about the Inoue-Casimero fight update.

Kevin said, quoting MP Promotion head Sean Gibbons that "John Riel Casimero was in Las Vegas training." On Inoue, he said that Inoue can get into the US Embassy in Japan once it is open. Once you hear the US Embassy in Japan has re-open then it is just a matter of time before Inoue has their fight scheduled.

 

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Answering your boxing and MMA questions

A post shared by Kevin Iole (@keviniole) on May 26, 2020 at 2:47pm PDT

New Bantamweight title holder, Nonito Donaire's next fight could be held in Manila according to the "Filipino Flash".

“Nothing’s final but I know the promoters are talking about my next fight to be in Asia," Donaire said. Donaire won the bantamweight title against Ryan Burnet (19-1, 9 KOs) at The SSE Hydro, Glasgow. Burnett did not answer Round 5 due to injury. He was later on diagnosed having torn muscle fibre in right oblique.

With the win, Donaire moved to World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) semifinal against Zolani Tete (28-3, 21 KOs) of South Africa.

"Tete’s a formidable opponent. As soon as I get back to Las Vegas, I’ll be studying, preparing and learning how to win my next fight. It will probably be early next year when we do the fight. I’m excited to advance to the semifinals as I’m getting closer to my goal of becoming the first Filipino undisputed world champion in any division,” Donaire said.

Donaire (39-5, 25 KOs) moved back down to 118-pound for the WBSS. His last fight at this division was in 2011 when he outpointed Omar Narvaez at the Madison Square Garden WaMu Theater, New York.

If Donaire gets past Tete in the semi-finals, he will face the winner between Japan's sensation Naoya Inoue (17-0, 15 KOs) and Emmanuel Rodriquez (19-0, 12 KOs) for the WBSS Bantamweight finals.