Unified super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (28-0, 25 KOs) weighs in at 121.8 pounds, while his alternate challenger Ye Jun Kim (21-2-2, 13 KOs) comes in at 121.7 pounds for their headliner this Friday, January 24th at Koto in Tokyo, Japan. Ku, Aria is in the arena.

(Credit: Naoka Fakuda)

Somber weight in

The weigh-in had a funeral-like feel to it, as no one smiled, the fighters had sad expressions on their faces. Inoue was scheduled to defend against Sam Goodman, but he was injured in camp and had to be replaced by Kim.

For fans outside of Australia, Kim and Goodman are interchangeable. There is no difference. Both are light punchers and have no threat to beat Inoue and are not popular fighters. It's good that replacements can be found so quickly. It's too bad a better opponent could have been dug up to make it interesting.

Who is Kim?

Not much is known about Kim as he has fought lesser opposition throughout his 13-year professional career. He did nothing to rate getting a title shot, even as a replacement opponent.

It's amazing how Team Ino chose him instead of someone that fans have heard of and who could give Nawa a run for his money. It may not have been what they wanted as it was risky for Inoue to fight someone with two weeks of preparation for their style.

Friday's Inoue-Kim event will be shown on ESPN+ at 4:15 am ET/ 1:15 am PT. Diehard boxing fans in the US will probably get up too early to watch the event, but that's about it.

Inoue, 31, hasn't excited boxing fans since his 2023 bout against Stephen Fulton. That fight got a lot of people in the US interested in seeing it. Since then, Nawa has beaten these fighters:

– TJ Doheny
– Lewis Neary
– Marlon Tapless