Unified super bantamweight champion Nawa Inoue is two days away from his title defense against his alternate opponent Ye Joon Kim (21-2-2, 13 KOs), and there's surprisingly Zero buzz About this fight on Friday, January 24th.

(Credit: Naoki Fakuda)

No Buzz

It's a signal that Japanese star, 'Monster' Inoue (28-0, 25 KOs), needs to challenge himself by moving up to featherweight so he can start facing opposition that the rest of the world cares about outside of his home country of Japan. about

Inoue is pretty rich, he fights whoever he wants, and it's possible he doesn't want to take the risk at this point in his career. Winning world titles in four divisions and facing none other than 36-year-old Nonito Donaire was easy. Inoue suffered a Fractured right orbital bone and a broken nose In their first fight on November 7, 2019. You can only imagine what a younger Donaire would have done to Inoue.

The event will be broadcast live from Ariake Arena, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan this Friday on ESPN+ at 4:15 am ET/1:15 am PT. Few US boxing fans will see this fight because they don't want to wake up early on Friday to see what could be another mismatch for Inoue. You have to wonder what Top Rank thinks about this fight.

Inoue, 31, was scheduled to defend against his mandate Sam GoodmanBut he was knocked down by an eye injury. It was as weak as a fight like Kim's and the fans had no interest.

Featherweight option

It's unclear why Nawa chooses to stay at 122 to fight obscure opponents rather than going up to 126 to deal with these killers:

– Rafael Espinoza
– King Vargas
– Bruce Carrington
– Angelo Leo
– Nick Ball
– Brandon Figueroa
– Suleiman Segawa
– Otabek Khulmatov

The answer to why Inoue chose not to move up to featherweight is pretty obvious. It is very difficult. You could argue that Naoya doesn't want to lose, obviously, and see the bottom drop out of his career. I can't blame Inoue for making easy money without taking any risks. I would probably do the same thing. It beats working for a living.

Take no risk, get easy cash, and Close the filet mignon soft opposition for the next ten years before retirement. It's weak, obviously, but it's better than getting knocked down at featherweight against one of the killers.