JAPANESE superstar Naoya Inoue and Filipino mandatory challenger Michael Dasmariñas will fight next after both parties have reached an agreement. The problem, however, is the place and date of the fight.
“Here’s the problem with Inoue—they want his fight to be in Japan,” Inoue’s promoter Bob Arum told Boxing Scene’s Keith Idec.
“The problem is, if you’re not from Japan, you can’t get into Japan. There’s a complete lockdown. Even if you’re willing to spend 14 days in quarantine, you can’t get in now. So, to say, ‘Yeah, it’s gonna happen in April,’ who the hell knows? Yeah, we’d love to have him fight in April. But we may have to bring him out of Japan and have him fight some place else.”
Arum could have the fight staged in a neutral location, the United States, if ever Japan continues to implement a strict lockdown, which bars foreign nationals from entering the country.
The 28-year-old Dasmarinas earned mandatory status for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) bantamweight belt that Inoue currently holds after beating fellow Filipino Kenny Demecillo by unanimous decision in a title eliminator early in 2019. He had one more fight in 2019, a fifth round technical knockout of Artid Bamrungauea. He didn’t fight in 2020.
The 27-year-old Inoue is one of the best fighters in the world right now. He’s rated No. 2 in The Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound rankings. Aside from the IBF belt, he also holds The Ring lineal bantamweight belt and the World Boxing Association (WBA) bantamweight Super title.
Inoue made his US debut on Oct. 31, 2020 and knocked out challenger Jason Moloney in the seventh round. Inoue is 20-0 with 17 knockouts, while Dasmariñas is 30-2-1 with 20 knockouts.