Murodjon Akhmadaliev — known affectionately as “MJ” or “Kaka” — sits laughing in his hotel room in Tokyo alongside members of his trusted team. His olive skin and jet-black hair contrast his pristine white smile, and he holds his most precious work tool — his clenched left fist — to the camera in an instinctive portrayal of defiance.
Akhmadaliev’s English is improving, but he speaks to Uncrowned through his friend and part-time translator, Mukhammadkodir Egamov, who has just relayed to him the most pressing question of his career to date: “Are you afraid of monsters?”
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“If I am being honest, growing up in Uzbekistan, there were a lot more things to be scared of than monsters,” Akhmadaliev (14-1, 11 KOs) explained, understanding the jest in which the question was asked. “And I can’t say that anything has changed now!”
On Sunday evening inside the IG Arena in Nagoya, Japan, the career super bantamweight will finally get his chance to claim the division’s crown. Two-and-a-half years after negotiations began, the 30-year-old Uzbek challenges Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs) — nicknamed “The Monster” — for the undisputed championship at 122 pounds.
“Monsters were things that lived downstairs, or out of the way,” he continued. “They were things that we didn’t care to think about or worry about as children. In Uzbekistan, we would worry about our next meal, or where money would come from. Our family’s health — things like that.”
“My family was very poor. I began working when I was about 9 years old at the city amusement park. I worked not only to support myself but also to step up and take responsibility for my family. Back then, a day’s pay at the park was $1.50, and those long days became a defining part of my childhood in Uzbekistan.”
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“We had no money at all and I was just a poor, skinny kid. That’s something that I’ll always find motivating, remembering those harder times when I had nothing. That’s scary.”
On his commute to work one afternoon, a 10-year-old Akhmadaliev’s life changed as he was run over by a car. His leg was shattered into pieces with a bone protruding through the skin. As he looked down at his blood-soaked trainers, dreams of becoming a professional boxer seemed a lifetime away.
“I had to have steel pins put in my leg, and the doctors told me I would never walk again. It was a really difficult time,” he said. “But challenges like that are meant to test you. You should never listen to anyone who says, ‘You can’t do this,’ because it’s simply not true. You can achieve anything if you truly believe in it.”
A long road of recovery followed, but “MJ” was unwilling to give up on his life-long dream of making it as a professional boxer. He cites his injury as something that forced him to hold his feet more in the amateurs, due to a lack of mobility, something that has borne fruit in latter years. The southpaw moved through the amateur ranks winning silvers at the 2012 World Youth Championships and 2015 World Amateur Championships, before Olympic bronze in 2016.
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Fast-forward to 2025, and the boy who wasn’t meant to walk again is just one win away from boxing immortality.
Since a razor-thin and hotly debated split-decision setback to Marlon Tapales in April 2023 — a fight where one judge astonishingly had it 118–110 for Akhmadaliev while the other two leaned 115–113 toward Tapales — the proud Uzbek has been on the climb. Each performance since has pushed him steadily back up the WBA rankings, all while his eyes remained fixed on the sport’s true summit: Naoya Inoue.
Japan’s Naoya Inoue takes part in a training session ahead of his super bantamweight world title fight against Uzbekistan’s Murodjon Akhmadaliev on Sept. 2, 2025.
(PHILIP FONG via Getty Images)
Akhmadaliev wasted no time calling for a shot after Inoue ruthlessly ripped the belts from Tapales with a 10th-round stoppage in December 2023. Yet the “Monster” chose a different road. Instead of answering the Uzbek’s challenge, Inoue stacked his schedule with a curious quartet — former champion Luis Nery, a past-his-best TJ Doheny, late substitute Ye Joon Kim, and most recently Mexican American Ramon Cardenas.
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For Akhmadaliev, the frustration was clear. For the division, the question lingered: how long can Inoue keep circling before he’s forced to collide with the man who refuses to fade from the conversation?
“It has been a long wait, but I am certain it will be worth it in the end,” he continued. “Perhaps it was necessary for me to gain that little bit more experience. I don’t know whether he [Inoue] is better than he was two years ago [when the fight was originally planned for] as he is still knocking everyone out and dominating whatever division he is in, but I know for sure that I am better — that’s all I can control.”
Prior to Inoue’s last bout — stopping Cardenas in the eighth round, after touching the canvas in the second — I asked a handful of Inoue’s past victims and sparring partners if they were any wiser in knowing how to beat the unbeaten champion.
Jamie McDonnell, Jason Moloney, Nonito Donaire, Paul Butler, Leigh Wood and Tapales all gave contrasting opinions, but were in agreement that it would take something and, more importantly, someone very special to topple Inoue.
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Make no mistake: Akhmadaliev has arrived in Japan full of belief that he is the man to snatch the “0” of one of the sport’s pound-for-pound stars.
“We are not going to give away our game plan, but we have proved time and time again that one punch can change a fight. I can hurt anyone and everyone with my punches and I have always believed in my power — he [Inoue] won’t be an exception in feeling that.
“Nery and Cardenas showed how Inoue can be hurt up at 122 pounds and I have spent my whole career at this weight. He is going to find it harder and harder up at this weight — that’s where I am able to gain an advantage.”
Akhmadaliev and his team — including coach Joel Diaz, who worked the corner for Cardenas in Inoue’s last fight — arrived in Japan on Aug. 21, completing his final sparring session last Friday. He has spent a majority of his amateur and professional career fighting away from home, so a trip out east to Japan hasn’t phased him.
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“I am going to stop him,” he states with authority. “They [Inoue’s team] were only willing to take this fight in Japan, but that’s not a problem for me. I can’t worry about judges or scorecards. I have enjoyed fighting on the road throughout my career — it’s something I am used to. I come alive when fighting away from home. A ring is a ring no matter where you are in the world.”
”We have a routine when we go away. It can sometimes be hard to find food that we can eat, so we get our traditional Uzbek meals sent over and I cook. It’s what I enjoy. I guess you could call it a second home.”
He laughs when I question his culinary skills. “So, so,” he adds in English, rotating his hand side to side. Qazi — Uzbekistan horse meat sausage — is the dish of the day when “MJ” is at the stove, and he believes it’s his secret ingredient for success.
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“This is what gives me the ‘Uzbek power’ that I speak about,” he explains. “It keeps us strong and powerful. It’s definitely more effective than Inoue’s ‘Japanese power’ — I know that for sure.”
Falling on the same weekend as Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford for the undisputed super middleweight crown in Las Vegas, Akhmadaliev believes that these two fights are the two biggest and best spectacles of 2025 — and who are we to argue?
“This is a huge weekend for boxing and I am so grateful to be such a big part of it,” he concludes. “I have no doubt in my ability. I guess “The Monster” is a cool nickname, but “MJ” is better — and scarier.”
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