Naoya Inoue’s next two fights have been lined up.
The Japanese sensation has reportedly signed to defend his undisputed super bantamweight crown against Ramon Cardenas and Murodjon Akhmadaliev in the space of four months.
According to Ring Magazine, Inoue will duke it out with Cardenas on May 4 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Providing he gets through that fight unscathed then he will then go straight into a September 14 showdown at a yet to be announced venue in Tokyo against Akhmadaliev.
Cardenas (26-1) is ranked No.2 by the WBA and No.10 by the WBO and stepped in after negotiations collapsed between Inoue and originally planned opponent Alan Picasso.
Akhmadaliev (13-1) is a former unified WBA and IBF super bantamweight champion and is Inoue’s long-time WBA mandatory.
The Uzbek’s handlers have long contended that Inoue is ‘ducking’ their man.
Particularly, his promoter Eddie Hearn, who recently came out and declared Inoue should be removed from the pound-for-pound rankings if he doesn’t fight his client.
“Why should Naoya Inoue be given a pass to fight low-level opponents and duck his mandatory?” he told iFL TV shortly after the pound-for-pound No.2 star’s stoppage win over the unheralded Yee Jon Kim in January.
“Not once, not twice, but three times. Naoya Inoue is a pound-for-pound great, but his resume is s***. Okay, he beat Stephen Fulton.
“It was a good performance. I think Naoya Inoue is really disappointing, and I think he’s very, very disappointing as a champion.
“I think fight fans need to wake up to what’s going on with Naoya Inoue. He’s boxed TJ Doheny and the geezer on Saturday [Ye Joon Kim].
“I know he was supposed to fight Sam Goodman. No disrespect, but he’s just another [soft job]. Inoue – time to be removed from the pound-for-pound list…
“They’re just allowing this to happen. He’s been ordered twice now to fight MJ [Akhmadaliev. He’s paid money to the WBA for a permit to avoid him.
“The IBF said, ‘We’ll allow you to fight Goodman reluctantly. That’s the second time you’ve ducked, but after you fight Goodman or this guy [Kim] you just boxed, you have to fight Akhmadaliev, and we’ll order the fight immediately.
“If you do not fight him, you’ll be stripped of the WBA title.’ He’s only going to fight [Alan Davis] Picasso. He’s not as good as Akhmadaliev.
“Three ducks [by Inoue]. This is outrageous. You are disappointing, Naoya Inoue. You are not the fighter that I thought you were.
“Akhmadaliev is now going to be the WBA champion. You have to fight him to be undisputed.”
If Inoue can beat Akhmadaliev then he will back in action in December for his Riyadh Seasn debut in Saudi Arabia.
No opponent has been confirmed as of yet, although it could be an all-Japanese showdown with Junto Nakatani or even a move up to featherweight.
