Pound-for-pound king Naoya Inoue (the Japanese star the P-4-P best right now in the opinion of many, but with plenty more handing the distinction Terence Crawford’s way, or Oleksandr Usyk’s) needs a new opponent for his planned May 4 return to the US. The original plan was for “The Monster” to fight unbeaten Mexican Alan Picasso in Las Vegas, but now – as per a report from Salvador Rodriguez – Picasso has, for whatever reason, declined the fight.
It’s not clear who Picasso – who would have been getting the biggest and presumably best-paid fight of his entire career with the shot at the unified super bantamweight champ – will now fight instead. There are some suggestions that say Picasso, 31-0-1(17) was advised by the great Erik Morales to decline the fight as he is not yet ready for as fine a fighter as Inoue. In any case, Inoue, unbeaten at 29-0(26) now needs a fresh dance partner for his US ring return.
As per Rodriguez, there are a trio of fighters who are now in line to get the Inoue gig on May 4, these fighters being: Ramon Cardenas, Murodjon Akhmadaliev, and Bryan Mercado. And another updated report says “MJ,” Akhmadaliev will likely get the fight. If so, this is actually great news. Picasso, as good as he might or might not be (we may never know), is no Akhmadaliev.
Akhmadaliev has as we know been stating for a while now how Inoue has been “ducking” a fight with him. Now, if this fight happens on May 4, Inoue will get the chance to make Akhmadaliev eat his words.
Inoue wants to be a very active fighter this year, and the initial plan was for the 31-year-old to box four times in total here in 2025. Inoue was last seen taking out a game but outclassing Ye Joon Kim on January 25th. Plenty of fight fans are excited to see Inoue back in America.
