Inoue, Donaire to meet in 118 unification fight and rematch of 2019 fight of the year
June 7 showdown in Japan will air live on ESPN in the U.S.
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The much-anticipated rematch between bantamweight titleholders Naoya Inoue and Nonito Donaire is finally on.
Inoue, who holds the IBF and WBA titles, and WBC titlist Donaire will meet in a three-belt unification fight on June 7 — a Tuesday — at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, just outside of Tokyo, Ohashi Promotions and Amazon Prime Video of Japan announced at a news conference on Wednesday.
The fight will stream on Amazon Prime in Japan. Top Rank, which co-promotes Inoue, has the United States rights to the fight and it will air live on ESPN in the early morning of fight day, a source with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite.
Inoue suffered a broken orbital bone around his right eye but dropped Donaire with a body shot in the 11th round and won a hard-fought unanimous decision — 117-109, 116-111 and 114-113 — in their action-packed consensus 2019 fight of the year, also the Saitama Super Arena, in the final of the World Boxing Super Series bantamweight tournament. With the win, Inoue unified the WBA and IBF belts.
“I’d like to win more convincingly than in our first encounter,” Inoue, a three-division champion, said at the news conference in translated comments. “I wish to have Nonito counted out this time since people called the previous 11th-round knockdown a long count.”
Donaire bounced back from the loss in May 2021 by knocking out Nordine Oubaali to win the WBC 118-pound title and break his own record as the oldest fighter (38 at the time) to win a bantamweight world title.
A rematch between Inoue and Donaire has been discussed for quite some time but there were problems finalizing it because the Japanese government was limiting crowds and not allowing foreigners into the country due to the coronavirus pandemic, leading both fighters to take alternate fights but still with an eye on an eventual rematch.
With Japan re-opening for travel and crowds — about 20,000 are expected for the rematch — it allowed organizers to finalize the fight.
There were discussions about making the fight for late last year but without a substantial crowd allowed, four-division champion Donaire (42-6, 28 KOs), 39, a Philippines native fighting out of Las Vegas, instead knocked out mandatory challenger/interim titlist Reymart Gaballo in the fourth round in December in Carson, California, and he will make his second defense against Inoue.
Inoue (22-0, 19 KOs), 28, of Japan, who is widely viewed among the top 5 fighters in the world pound-for-pound, has fought three times since the victory over Donaire and won each defense by knockout against Jason Moloney and mandatory challenger Michael Dasmarinas, both in Las Vegas, and Aran Dipaen in Tokyo in December.
“Each has become stronger than last time, and you will see more excitement this time,” said Donaire, who appeared at the news conference via video. “The first fight had me revived and back. I’ll (be) stronger and more motivated against Naoya. After defeating Naoya to unify the three belts, I hope to unify all four of the belts.”
Inoue photo: Naoki Fukuda
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Hats off got the award given to the Klitschko bros! Well deserved! Courageous and brilliant men!
Bummed that this great fight couldn’t be made for US Prime Time. Ala Haney/Kambosos. I guess Top Rank and Inoue have given up on Naoya becoming a Star in the States. This is biggest fight that Inoue can currently make in the bantamweight division. Will any Boxing Casuals even bother to watch? I doubt it. I had to be up at 430AM PT on a weekday for the previous fight. I didn’t regret it because it was a great fight. But then I had to go to work lol. This kind of a fight should be spoon fed to the general public on a Saturday night, Prime Time ESPN. Oh well.