Undisputed junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue was always set to face Murodjon Akhmadaliev on Sept. 14 — there is no secret there.
But Thursday in Japan, Ohashi Promotions held a press conference to formally announce Inoue’s fight against his long-waiting WBA mandatory challenger, as well as other supporting bouts, which will take place at the newly built Aichi International Arena (IG Arena) in Nagoya.
In other bouts, WBO bantamweight champion Yoshiki Takei (11-0, 9 KOs) will make his third title defence against mandatory challenger Christian Medina (25-4, 18 KOs), and a WBA strawweight title fight will take place between Yuni Takada (16-8-3, 6 KOs) and Ryusei Matsumoto (6-0, 4 KOs).
This card takes place on a Sunday, the day after two of the sport’s other top pound-for-pound fighters in Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford battle it out in Las Vegas.
Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), The Ring’s No. 2-rated pound-for-pound fighter, took to social media and labelled Akhmadaliev as the toughest opponent of his career, a solid compliment considering he’s been involved in championship fights for 10 successive years. Akhmadaliev will represent the four-division champion’s 26th consecutive world title fight.
Inoue is coming off a Fight of the Year contender against Ramon Cardenas in which he was dropped for the second time in a year, only to rally and get a resounding eighth-round stoppage win.
If Inoue beats Akhmadaliev, and if David Picasso is victorious in his July 19 fight against Japanese contender Kyonosuke Kameda, the two are expected to headline a Japan vs. Mexico Riyadh Season card on Dec. 27 in Saudi Arabia.
Akhmadaliev (14-1, 11 KOs) would have gotten the Inoue fight much sooner if he hadn’t suffered a split-decision defeat to Marlon Tapales in April 2023.
Inoue went on to knock out Tapales eight months later, while Uzbekistan’s Akhmadaliev strung three straight stoppage wins before sealing a chance to face the Japanese star.
Manouk Akopyan is The Ring’s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan