As the Los Angeles Dodgers continue to snap up big-name Japanese talent — two-way star Shohei Ohtani and pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto in 2023 and young fireballer Roki Sasaki this year — boxing promoter Bob Arum made it clear there is one Japanese star the MLB club will not get its hands on.
“We’re not going to let the Dodgers steal this guy,” Arum joked, referring to undisputed super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue, who was standing nearby moments after defending his belts with a vicious fourth-round knockout of South Korean challenger Kim Ye-joon at Ariake Arena on Friday night.
Inoue might not be wearing a Los Angeles uniform anytime soon, but Japan is going to have to share one of the world’s finest pound-for-pound fighters with the rest of the globe in 2025.
Inoue improved to 29-0 (26 KOs) in his third successful title defense since unifying the super bantamweight titles in 2023. He earned his 10th consecutive knockout after delivering a brutal combination to Kim’s head after the challenger, showing a bit too much bravado, pointed to his chin in an apparent challenge to the champion.
Next up for Inoue, according to Arum, a legendary figure in the sport and the CEO of Top Rank, which co-promotes the Japanese boxer's fights, is a bout in Las Vegas.
“I am aiming to fight overseas in 2025,” Inoue said. “I would like to fight in Las Vegas this spring.”
There may also be a big payday in Saudi Arabia on the horizon. Inoue has an existing relationship with the Gulf state, becoming an ambassador of Riyadh Season, an entertainment and sports festival in Saudi Arabia, in November.
During his comments immediately after Friday’s fight, Inoue said he was planning to fight in the Middle Eastern nation, though he declined to go into specifics when asked about it later.
“There is not much I can say right now,” he said while sitting next to Hideyuki Ohashi, founder of Ohashi Boxing Gymnasium in Yokohama, where Inoue trains. “The match just ended, so I would like to talk to Chairman Ohashi about that."
The “Monster” has been confined to Japan in recent years, with his last eight fights all on home soil. The last time he fought in the U.S. was in June 2021, when he knocked out Michael Dasmarinas in the third round of their fight in Las Vegas to defend his IBF and WBA bantamweight titles.
Inoue is already a star in Japan and in the overall boxing community — he is No. 2 in Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound rankings. Taking his crowd-pleasing style abroad, however, could raise his global profile considerably.
Inoue’s bouts are exciting, and he is a treat for fans who crave knockouts — he has only had to go the distance three times in 29 fights. He has already sold out Tokyo Dome, but putting his skills on display in Las Vegas, the “Fight Capital of the World,” provides an even bigger stage.
He lived up to the considerable hype against Kim.
Inoue admitted he was unfamiliar with the South Korean, who took the fight on 13 days’ notice as a late replacement for Sam Goodman.
Inoue was supposed to face Goodman at the same venue in December, but the fight was pushed back one month when the Australian suffered a cut during training. The fight was called off when Goodman was cut again, and Kim was announced as the new challenger on Jan. 11.
Inoue studied Kim early in the bout to decipher how he was approaching the fight.
He broke through Kim’s defenses in the fourth, sending the challenger reeling toward the ropes with a flurry of punches.
When Kim gestured at his chin, the “Monster” attacked and swiftly ended the fight.
“He shouldn’t have done that,” Inoue said later.
After the fight, Inoue brushed off a question about possibly moving up to a different weight class, saying he still had opponents to fight at the super bantamweight level.
Longtime boxing manager Mike Altamura, who was in Kim’s corner, expects Inoue to take on that challenge eventually.
“The ‘Monster’ is a generational talent,” Altamura said. “My fighters are 0-2 now against him. Maybe it'll be third time lucky. We’ll keep coming. But he's an outstanding talent.
“If you look at the greatest fighters ever, especially pound-for-pound, look at the current situation. (Oleksandr) Usyk, he was able to move up to heavyweight. He's fighting significantly bigger guys. Manny Pacquiao, eight-division world champion. Floyd Mayweather, 130 (pounds) all the way up to 154.
“The greats always find a way to scale the mountains that people think are insurmountable at certain stages. I think that he has the quality and the skill, and the dexterity in the ring, (the) intelligence, not only to go to 126 but even to 130. I believe he's an outstanding fighter.”
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