Naoya Inoue lined up for fight everyone wants to see with Junto Nakatani as target date and venue revealed

One of the most hotly anticipated fights in modern boxing, between Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani, is being lined up for next year.

According to WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman, the Japanese superstars are set to meet in an undisputed super bantamweight title clash in May 2026 at the Tokyo Dome.

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The blockbuster bout hinges on Inoue and Nakatani winning their respective fights on the Ring V: Night of the Samurai card on December 27 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Inoue (31-0) headlines the event against Alan Picasso (32-0-1) in what will mark the fifth defence of his four 122lbs belts.

‘The Monster’ previously overcame Murodjon Akhmadaliev, Ramon Cardenas, Ye Joon Kim, TJ Doheny and Luis Nery after achieving undisputed supremacy by flattening Marlon Tapales in December 2023.

Further down the bill, Nakatani (31-0) is due to meet Sebastian Hernandez Reyes (20-0) in his first fight at super bantamweight after successfully unifying the WBC and IBF bantamweight titles against Ryosuke Nishida in June.

Before that, the 27-year-old scooped WBO world titles at flyweight and super flyweight and will be bidding to become a four-weight world champion next year.

That feat has already been achieved by Inoue, who has won world titles at light flyweight, super flyweight, bantamweight and, now, super bantamweight.

Inoue is also part of an elite group of two-weight undisputed world champions, having unified all four major sanctioning body belts at bantamweight previously.

Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani agree to box

Nakatani and Inoue verbally agreed to face each other during Japan’s annual awards in March.

After being named the country’s best boxer for the seventh year running, Inoue called for a fight with Nakatani during his speech.

“It turned out to be a special year,” he said. “I want to make this year even better

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“I want to do the best I can this year for the big domestic match that lots of fans and people around the sport have been talking about.

“Mr Nakatani, a year later at Tokyo Dome, let’s lift the mood around Japanese boxing together.”

Nakatani then joined Inoue on stage and replied: “Sure, let’s do it,” before the pair shook hands.

“If we can come through this year strongly, I believe it will be the most exciting bouts between Japanese in the country’s boxing history,” Inoue added.

Inoue is currently ranked No.3 in the Ring Magazine pound-for-pound rankings, while Nakatani is placed at No.7.