Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue and Ye Joon Kim weighed in successfully today for their fight this Friday, January 24th.
(Credit: Naoka Fakuda)
Weights:
Naoya Inoue 121.8 vs. Ye Joon Kim 121.7
Inoue (28-0, 25 KOs) will be defending his IBF, WBC, and WBO super bantamweight titles against Kim (21-2-2, 13 KOs) from the Ariake Arena, Koto-Ku, in Tokyo, Japan.
The event will be shown for the U.S. fans on ESPN+ early in the morning at 4:15 a.m. ET/ 1:15 a.m
Inoue, 31, had been scheduled to defend against his mandatory Sam Goodman, but he suffered a cut during camp and had to pull out. It’s a miracle that they found someone so quick. It’s disappointing that it was the little-known Kim rather than someone that boxing fans have heard of.
Inoue’s fans in his native Japan probably don’t mind that Kim is being used because those countries are nearby. So, it makes sense that he was chosen as Inoue’s replacement.
The rest of the world would have like to have seen Inoue fight WBA interim super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev or #1 Alan David Picasso. For some reason, Naoya has never seemed eager to fight Akhmadaliev, and it’s strange because he’s supposed to be willing to fight anyone. I guess there are limits to even what Inoue is willing to do.
Inoue is coming off a seventh-round stoppage of 38-year-old TJ Doheny on September 3rd last year. Naoya took a lot of criticism for choosing to fight Doheny, given that he’s beaten three lower-level fighters after losing four out of his six fights. In other words, Doheny had padded his record with fodder and was given a title shot after a 2-4 run leading into the soft opponents.
Some boxing fans believe Inoue is no longer looking to take tough fights at this stage of his career. He’s just milking his titles, making easy money, and just trying to prolong his stay at the top as long as humanely possible.
