Discussions are underway for a tasty bantamweight unification bout between WBA and IBF champion Naoya ‘The Monster’ Inoue 21-0 (18) and WBC boss Nonito ‘The Filipino Flash’ Donaire 41-6 (27) later this year.
Inoue and Donaire competed in The Ring magazine’s fight of the year at the Saitama Super Arena in November 2019 when the Japanese boxer overcame a fractured eye socket to drop the Filipino veteran in the 11th round and edged him on the scorecards of a very competitive fight. It was the first time Inoue had gone the distance in nine bouts.
Donaire, 38, looked in vintage form when he destroyed previously undefeated Nordine Oubaali 17-1 (12) to claim the French southpaw’s WBC belt in four one-sided rounds in Carson, California in May. It was his first outing since the Inoue fight.
Meanwhile, the 28-year-old Inoue stopped quality Australian contender Jason ‘Mayhem’ Moloney in seven rounds in Las Vegas last October and walked through mandatory contender Michael Dasmarinas of Thailand in three rounds again in Las Vegas this past June.
Inoue’s American co-promoter Bob Arum revealed their future plans this week.
“He is going to fight this year. We talk with (Teiken Promotions Akihiko) Honda all the time,” the Top Rank boss said to World Boxing News. “And we hope we’ll be able to do a fight in Japan in November or December.
“[Donaire] is a good possibility. But you got to understand — with Inoue, we follow the lead of Honda. So, again, they talked to me about the possibility of doing Donaire in Japan, so we’ll see.”
Donaire was expected to face fellow Filipino and WBO 118-pound kingpin John Riel Casimero 30-4 (21) on August 14 before the WBC boss withdrew citing concerns about his fellow titlist’s delays in enrolling in the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency’s drug testing program. He also took issue with online comments made by the Casimero camp directed at his wife, trainer and manager Rachel Donaire.
Donaire’s promoter Richard Schaefer of Ringstar Sports confirmed they are actively pursuing the rematch with Inoue.
“Nonito made it clear to me that that’s the fight he would like to have and that he has no problem going to Japan,” Schaefer told World Boxing News.
“Obviously, we are waiting to see. But for a fight like that, you need to have a live audience and with the coronavirus situation in Japan and the (Tokyo) Olympics, I am told it’s a bit premature to talk about dates, sites and money because you really don’t know what monies you’re dealing with.
“We will wait until after the Olympics are over and then we’ll see if we can get that fight done for Nonito.
“Nonito felt very welcome in Japan when they fought the first time. The Japanese fans are great fans and very supportive. And Nonito has a lot of fans in Japan and there were also a lot of Filipinos who came over for the fight.”
