Naoya Inoue will make his next defense of his undisputed super bantamweight championship against little known #2 WBA Ramon Cardenas on May 4th in Las Vegas, then battle Murodjon Akhmadaliev on Sept 14th in Tokyo.
Promoter Eddie Hearn criticized unified super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue in an interview, saying he needs to be stripped of his WBA title for ducking his mandatory Murodjon Akhmadaliev three times.
It’s one of the biggest stories/questions currently circulating in the sport: is Naoya Inoue actually ducking and dodging Murodjon Akhmadaliev? To most people, the very notion that “Monster” Inoue – for many fans, experts and fellow fighters the reigning pound-for-pound best in the world today – is ducking anyone is nothing short of absurd.
Tonight in Monte Carlo, Murodjon Akhmadaliev showed zero ring rust in chopping down and taking out a game Ricardo Espinoza to take the vacant interim WBA super-bantamweight belt.
Murodjon Akhmadaliev (13-1, 10 KOs) looked outstanding, stopping Ricardo Espinoza (30-5, 25 KOs) in the third round to win the interim WBC super bantamweight title on Saturday night at the Salle des Étoiles in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Super-bantamweight Murodjon Akhmadaliev, one of just a few fighters brave enough to say out loud that “Monster” Naoya Inoue is running from him, will get the chance to pick up an interim belt this Saturday night in Monaco, live on DAZN.
Murodjon Akhmadaliev said he didn’t want to have to be satisfied with fighting for an interim world title, that he wanted a fight with the real champion at 122 pounds, Naoya Inoue.
A former WBA super-bantamweight champ and the current WBA mandatory contender, Murodjon Akhmadaliev is putting yet more pressure on Japanese superstar and reigning pound-for-pound king Naoya Inoue to face him in the ring.
Is “The Monster” afraid? Superb ring king Naoya Inoue, the current unified four-belt champ at 122 pounds, hasn’t looked scared of anything or anybody during his hugely impressive ring career, yet right now, former WBA and IBF super-bantamweight champ Murodjon Akhmadaliev is saying Inoue is “trying to avoid fighting me.”
As fight fans may have read by now, unified 122-pound King Naoya Inoue has been ordered to face former two-belt super bantamweight champ Murodjon Akhmadaliev next.