The undisputed hegemon of the 122-pound super bantamweight division, Naoya Inoue "The Monster" Inoue (26-0, 23 KOs), has all but set up his next bout, and according to boxing columnist Michael Kopinger this week, Inoue will return to boxing in May against WBC forced challenger Louis Neri (35-1, 27 KOs), and the bout will be played out in Tokyo, Japan, home of Naoya Inoue.
Last month, Inoue scored 10 rounds of knockouts against Marlon Tapales, unified the entire 122-pound belt, captured all four belts in his division, and was named the 2023 Fighter of the Year by many **, including The Ring magazine.
At first, some speculated that Inoue could continue to escalate and make bigger breakthroughs in the 126-pound featherweight division, such as against Ray Vargas, Leigh Wood, Brandon Figueroa, Luis Lopez and other strong fighters, but Inoue Naoya in the battle with Tapales, although he won a big match, but also received a lot of heavy punches, so he decided not to take any more risks and take a slow time at 122 pounds, sources told ESPN that Inoue plans to complete three fights this year, all at 122 pounds, which means that even if he wants to upgrade, he will have to wait until 2025.
As early as the start of the defeat of Tapales, the Inoue team hinted that the next match would be against Neri, so when the match was finalized, it was largely unexpected. Originally from Mexico, Neri is a former two-time champion in different divisions and has some quality, and his fight with Naoya Inoue is in suspense, and Neri has a strong connection with Japan, which is one of the important reasons why he was selected.
Neri's first rise came with a win over the Japanese fighter in 2017, when he traveled to Japan to face WBC bantamweight champion Shinsuke Yamanaka, where he won by a shock four-round knockout. A year later, Neri went to Japan again for a rematch with Shinsuke Yamanaka, this time he ended the fight in just two rounds, but lost the title early due to his overweight, and was found to be doping after the match, so that he was listed as "persona non grata" by Japan, and "forever banned" Neri from racing.
However, Kopinge said that now that Japan has "lifted the ban" on Neiri, there is no big problem for him to appear in Tokyo in May. At the moment, Neri holds a record of 2 wins in Japan, which is a major attraction of the clash with Naoya Inoue, and it is not clear whether Neri can continue to win all of his matches in Japan
Neri defeated Shinsuke Yamanaka twice in Japan that year, and it is said that the local fans hate him to the core, and now Japanese fans hope that Inoue Naoya can destroy Neri, but the hatred in their hearts depends on whether Inoue Naoya fights or not
Most fans and ** believe that the 30-year-old Inoue Naoya has no problem defeating the 29-year-old Neri, but judging from Inoue's last fight with Tapales, he is by no means invulnerable, so there is still the possibility of an upset inside. Neri, like Tapalais, is also a left-hander, so Inoue should be careful, and it's unclear which 122-pound fighters he will fight after leveling out Neri