Naoya Inoue and Murodjon Akhmadaliev now have a confirmed location for their already agreed upon showdown.
The undisputed junior featherweight championship is set to headline a September 14 show at the state-of-the-art IG Arena in Nagoya, Japan. The date – which BoxingScene previously reported – and venue were confirmed during a press conference held by Ohashi Promotions on Thursday to formally announce the event.
The event will stream live on Lemino in Japan. U.S. TV rights were not confirmed as this goes to publication.
The bout is joined by another true title fight along with an all-Japan clash for a secondary belt.
Yoshiki Takei – a fixture on Inoue undercards – will attempt his third defense of the WBO 118lbs title against mandatory challenger Christian Medina. The third bout confirmed for Thursday is a WBA regular strawweight title fight between Japanese contenders Yuni Takada, 16-8-3 (6 KOs), and Ryusei Matsumoto, 6-0 (4 KOs).
Yokohama’s Inoue, 30-0 (27 KOs), will attempt the fifth defense of his fully unified 122lbs championship and sixth overall of the WBC and WBO titles.
His most recent adventure saw the four-division champ and longtime pound-for-pound entrant stop a valiant Ramon Cardena, 26-2 (15 KOs), in the eighth round of their May 4 thriller in Las Vegas. Inoue was forced to survive a second-round knockdown to drop Cardenas in the seventh and force the stoppage one round later in his first fight on US soil since 2021.
The upcoming clash with Uzbekistan’s Akhmadaliev, 13-1 (10 KOs), will mark his third of the year already. Inoue began the year with a fourth-round knockout of South Korea’s Ye Joon Kim, 21-3-2, (13 KOs), on January 24 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. Kim was a late replacement for Sam Goodman, Inoue’s IBF mandatory challenger, who suffered two injuries in less than a month and thus lost out on the chance to cash in his lottery ticket.
The fact that Inoue sought to first face Goodman never sat well with Akhmadaliev, the current interim WBA junior featherweight titlist, who has long called for his shot at the crown.
Akhmadaliev, a 2016 Olympic bronze medalist, has been Inoue’s mandatory since a December 2023 knockout win over Kevin Gonzalez in Glendale, Arizona. Inoue-Akhmadaliev was twice ordered by the WBA in 2024.
On both occasions, concessions were made for Inoue to face another opponent.
Inoue was first permitted to face TJ Doheny in a voluntary title defense, despite the fact that his ordered mandatory with Akhmadaliev was due to head to a purse bid hearing. Their clash last September saw Inoue prevail via seventh-round knockout, but his team never bothered to revisit plans to face the Uzbek southpaw.
A consolation prize was offered to Akhmadaliev in the form of an interim title fight. He made the most of it, as he comprehensively beat Ricardo Espinoza last December 14 in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Inoue was initially due to face Goodman 10 days later, but the event was postponed by exactly one month due to a cut suffered by the unbeaten Aussie. A repeat occurrence just a few weeks later prompted Inoue to proceed with the voluntary defense against Kim, along with aggressive plans to become the most active male champion in the sport, with four potential fights in 2025.
Akhmadaliev’s name was mentioned as part of that plan, though he was not the primary target. He finally entered the mix in May, as the fight was agreed upon just days ahead of Inoue’s win over Cardenas. Akhmadaliev also took a stay-busy fight, earning an eighth-round stoppage against Luis Castillo, 31-7 (20 KOs), on May 30 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The same show saw the locally based Medina post a knockout win of his own, as he stopped Daniel Ramirez in the second round. The victory preserved his place in line as the leading challenger for Takei’s title.
Takei, 11-0 (9 KOs), made his second successful WBO title defense just two days prior to Medina’s latest win. It came in similarly dominant fashion when he iced unbeaten challenger Yuttapong Tongdoe in the first round of their May 28 DAZN headliner from his hometown in Yokohama, Japan.
The win was Takei’s first knockout in a title fight. He stopped each of his first eight opponents before he was extended the distance in a 12-round unanimous decision win over Australia’s Jason Moloney to lift the title last May 6 at the Tokyo Dome.
Takei then went 12 bruising rounds with countryman Daigo Higa, whom he outpointed last September 3 at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena.
Both fights took place on Inoue undercards, the latter being his fifth in a row in that role. Takei was due to face Tongdoe in supporting capacity to Inoue’s January 24 knockout win over Ye Joon Kim, but an injury forced him off the show.
Takei is now reunited with his superstar gym mate.
Medina has knocked out each of his past four opponents to work his way to title contention. The 25-year-old has won 15 of his past 16 contests. His lone defeat during that stretch came in an August 2023 unanimous decision loss to Ryosuke Nishida, who went on to win the IBF 118lbs title.
