A blockbuster showdown is brewing: Naoya Inoue vs. Junto Nakatani is being targeted for May 2026 at the Tokyo Dome, per WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman.
Both fighters will share the spotlight on the same event earlier that month, competing in separate bouts that are highly expected to end in victories. On December 27 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Inoue, who is 31-0 with 27 knockouts, defends his WBC, WBA, IBF, and WBO junior featherweight titles against David Picasso, a matchup in which Inoue is heavily favored. Nakatani, 31-0 with 24 knockouts, will move up to the 122-pound limit to face unbeaten Sebastian Hernandez Reyes in a bantamweight unification-style contest.
Inoue has already ticked off three wins this year: he stopped Ye Joon Kim in the fourth round in January, defeated Ramon Cardenas by TKO in the eighth in May, and went the distance with Murodjon Akhmadaliev in September, a 12-round affair that went the distance.
Meanwhile, Nakatani has also been bustling in 2025. He stopped David Cuellar Contreras in three rounds in February and then halted Ryosuke Nishida in the sixth round to seal a bantamweight unification win in June.
If both results unfold as expected in December, the path will be clear for what many consider one of the sport’s all-time delicious matchups to come to fruition.
Would a duel between Oleksandr Usyk and Deontay Wilder be a superb spectacle or a potential misfire? Usyk has expressed interest in fighting Wilder, and BoxingScene Today’s panel weighs the hypothetical clash. The consensus skews toward excitement, though a few voices remain skeptical.
Tuesday | Dec 2, 2025
