Naoya Inoue’s dominance of the junior featherweight division is such that his title defenses have grown into showcases of his expertise moderately than threats to his unblemished document.
Such would be the case on Christmas Eve in Tokyo when unbeaten four-division champion Inoue may have the vacation crowd’s consideration by assembly Australia’s IBF necessary challenger Sam Goodman on an ESPN+ card at Ariake Enviornment.
A information convention to formally announce the Christmas Eve card was staged Thursday in Japan, and Inoue will quickly present an unique interview with BoxingScene to elaborate on the struggle and his future.
The cardboard can even embody a WBO bantamweight title protection by Yokishi Takei, 11-0 (8 KOs), towards an opponent but to be named.
Japan’s Inoue, 28-0 (25 KOs), is believed to be near wrapping up his work at 122lbs, because the undisputed champion is predicted to have his means with Goodman, 19-0 (8 KOs), and transfer on to a serious occasion in America that Inoue’s U.S. promoter, Bob Arum, has touted.
The expectation is the bout will land in Las Vegas, and that it may very nicely grow to be a showdown with unbeaten countryman and three-division and bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani.
Due to his earlier destructions, Inoue surprisingly left one thing to be desired in his most up-to-date bout, a seventh-round body-shot stoppage of veteran former titleholder TJ Doheny, during which Inoue was inactive by his requirements within the early rounds earlier than letting fly the defining barrage.
But “The Monster” has in any other case been a relentless, precision-punching preventing machine, rising to the highest of the pound-for-pound rankings and flexing his recognition by promoting out the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome earlier than flattening Luis Nery in Might.
Goodman, 26, elevated to his lofty IBF place by defeating Doheny, Ra’eese Aleem and Miguel Flores in succession final yr, most lately took a July 10 tune-up, defeating Thachtana Luangphon by unanimous determination.
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. author and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has coated boxing for the reason that early 2000s, first on the Los Angeles Instances after which at The Athletic and USA Immediately. He gained the Boxing Writers’ Affiliation of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for profession excellence.
