“The Monster” Returns: Naoya Inoue vs. Murodjon Akhmadaliev in September
The undisputed super bantamweight champion, Naoya “The Monster” Inoue, is preparing for his third fight of 2025. On September 14, a day after Canelo Álvarez defends his super middleweight title against Terence Crawford in Las Vegas, Inoue will put his championship on the line against Murodjon Akhmadaliev at the newly built Aichi International Arena in Nagoya, Japan.
The official announcement was made on Thursday in Japan during a press conference organized by Ohashi Promotions.
Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), ranked number two in the pound-for-pound rankings, comes into this fight after an exciting technical knockout victory in the eighth round against Ramón Cardenas in May. Previously, in January, he also achieved a knockout over Kim Ye-Joon. For his part, Akhmadaliev (14-1, 11 KOs), former unified super bantamweight champion, is coming off a knockout of Luis Castillo in May and has accumulated three consecutive victories, all by way of the quick route, since losing by split decision to Marlon Tapales in 2023.
Inoue has a fourth fight scheduled before the end of the year. If he successfully defends his title against Akhmadaliev, and David Picasso defeats Kyonosuke Kameda on July 19, they are expected to face each other on December 27 in Saudi Arabia.
In the co-main event, Yoshiki Takei (11-0, 9 KOs) will defend his WBO title at 118 pounds against challenger Christian Medina (25-4, 18 KOs).
