An October 29 bidding war could decide the rights to Naoya Inoue’s next fight.
On Tuesday, the IBF formally ordered the Japanese superstar to defend his undisputed super bantamweight titles against his mandatory challenger, Australia’s Sam Goodman (19-0, 8 KOs). Ring Magazine first reported the news. A Sept. 12 ruling by the IBF instructed Inoue (28-0, 25 KOs) to begin negotiations with Goodman and gave the pair 28 days to reach a deal. No agreement has yet been reached, so a purse bid hearing is now set to determine which promotional entity obtains the rights to the fight.
Purse offers open at 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday, October 29. Any promoter registered with the IBF can lodge a bid. Top Rank/Ohashi Promotions, which handles the career of Inoue, and No Limit Boxing, which promotes Goodman, are expected to be present at the auction.
Top Rank CEO Bob Arum told BoxNation that he was hoping to stage Inoue vs. Goodman on December 24 in Tokyo. Should Top Rank/Ohasi win the purse bids or reach a deal with Goodman within the next 14 days, Inoue vs. Goodman will likely end up taking place on December 24 in Tokyo.
Inoue, a four-weight world champion, previously held the undisputed titles at bantamweight in a run that included two victories over the legendary Nonito Donaire. However, in 2023, Inoue moved up to super bantamweight to deliver a captivating matchup with the unified champion, Stephen Fulton.
Fulton succumbed to the superior boxing skills and power of Inoue and was stopped in the eighth round. Five months later, Inoue knocked out another unified champion, Marlon Tapales, to become only the second-ever two-weight male undisputed champion of the four-belt era.
The 31-year-old has since made two defenses of his undisputed super bantamweight championships in 2024. In May, Inoue was knocked down for the first time in his career but recovered to stop Mexico’s Luis Nery in round six in front of 55,000 fans at the Tokyo Dome. It was the first fight at the iconic venue since Buster Douglas’ historic 1990 upset of Mike Tyson. Four months later, Inoue delivered a seventh-round knockout of Irishman TJ Doheny at the Ariake Arena.
Goodman earned his No. 1 contender position with a split decision win over Ra’eese Aleem in July 2023. There is another mandatory commitment outstanding for Inoue in Uzbekistan’s Murodjon Akhmadaliev. Akhmadaliev’s promoter Eddie Hearn was vocal about Inoue “avoiding” that fight to BoxNation.
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