Notebook: Bantamweight champ Inoue set for Japanese homecoming fight Dec. 14

Jake Paul-Tommy Fury is on; details on Crawford-Porter PPV undercard; Quick hits; Show and tell

Oct 30, 2021

Unified bantamweight world champion Naoya Inoue announced on Friday via his Twitter feed that his next title defense is set.

“The Monster” said he will face Alan Dipaen, of Thailand, on Dec. 14 at Ryogoku Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo, the same arena that hosted this past summer’s Olympic boxing competition.

“It's been two years since I’ve had a match in Japan, so I'm really looking forward to it,” Inoue wrote.

The 28-year-old Inoue (21-0, 18 KOs), one of boxing’s elite pound-for-pound stars, has not fought at home since November 2019, when he outslugged Nonito Donaire to unify 118-pound world titles in the final of the World Boxing Super Series. The fight was the consensus 2019 fight of the year.

Since then, Inoue, who is co-promoted by Top Rank, has fought both of his bouts in Las Vegas, a seventh-round knockout of Jason Moloney in October 2020 and a third-round destruction of Michael Dasmarinas in this past June.

Inoue, a three-division champion, will be making his sixth bantamweight title defense.

Dipaen (12-2, 11 KOs), 30, will be taking a massive step up in competition. He has won six fights in a row but he has faced extremely low-level opposition throughout his career. Dipaen is 1-2 in fights outside of Thailand, but won his only previous bout in Japan.

Top Rank officials said it had not yet been determined if the fight would stream on ESPN+ in the United States.

In a second title bout on the card, Wilfredo “Bimbito” Mendez (16-1, 6 KOs), 24, of Puerto Rico, is due to defend his WBO strawweight belt for the third time when he meets mandatory challenger and fellow southpaw Masataka Taniguchi (14-3, 9 KOs), 27, of Japan.

When the fight went to a purse bid on earlier this month there were no bidders, so the WBO scheduled another one for this past Wednesday and cut the minimum bid from $80,000 to $40,000. But the WBO announced that the camps had reached an agreement and canceled the purse bid.

Jake Paul vs. Tommy Fury

When Tommy Fury, the younger brother of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, appeared on the undercard of Jake Paul’s Aug. 29 fight it was no secret that if Paul and Fury both won they would likely meet next.

Social media personality Paul outpointed former UFC star Tyron Woodley over eight rounds and Fury won a lackluster four-round decision over Anthony Taylor.

And now Paul-Fury is on. They will meet in an eight-round cruiserweight fight — the contract weight is 192 pounds — on Dec. 18 (Showtime PPV, 9 p.m. ET) at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla., Showtime announced on Friday.

The two will meet head to head at a news conference in Las Vegas on Nov. 6 and at another one in Tampa on Nov. 8.

The fight will be the first for Paul (4-0, 3 KOs), 24, of Cleveland, against a full-time boxer as Fury (7-0, 4 KOs), 22, of England, competes only in boxing. Paul’s previous four opponents were fellow social media personality Ali Eson Gib, retired NBA player Nate Robinson, former MMA star Ben Askren and Woodley.

“I started my professional boxing career less than two years ago on Jan. 30th, 2020. Four fights, three pay-per-views, two as the headliner, and one sold-out arena,” Paul said. “I’m looking forward to my toughest challenge yet and continuing to prove the critics wrong. Fight a real boxer they’ve said, and that is exactly what I’m doing. An undefeated boxer from the legendary Fury bloodline. However, this one is more than just boxing for me. It’s for America and showing the world there is no other country that gives you the opportunity to achieve whatever you set your mind to. It’s for every young person who has a dream and dedicates their life to achieving it. On Dec. 18th I’m continuing to fulfill my dreams.”

Fury has been boxing since he was 12 and believes his experience in the sport will be the difference.

“Jake Paul is about to learn a serious life lesson,” Fury said. “This is my world, and he doesn’t belong here. I’m not one of these MMA men or basketball players, I have been boxing my whole life. On Dec. 18th I will show the world the difference between a YouTuber and a real fighting man.”

Crawford-Porter undercard

Top Rank has not officially announced the undercard of Terence Crawford’s much-anticipated welterweight title defense against former two-time titlist Shawn Porter on Nov. 20 (ESPN+ PPV) at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, but Esquiva Falcao and Patrice Volny will meet in an IBF middleweight title eliminator in the co-feature, sources with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite.

The winner will position himself as the mandatory challenger for Gennadiy Golovkin, who will first engage in a unification fight with Ryota Murata in December in Japan.

Falcao (28-0, 20 KOs), 31, a southpaw from Brazil and 2012 Olympic silver medalist, was initially ordered to meet Germany’s Patrick Wojcicki (14-0-1, 5 KOs) in a fight that was planned for Aug. 28 either in Germany or on a Matchroom Boxing card in the United States. However, Wojcicki withdrew with an injury and the fight was eventually canceled and Volny (16-0, 10 KOs), 32, of Montreal, the next leading available contender, accepted the fight.

The sources also detailed the rest of the card, which will include a 10-round middleweight bout between fast-rising contender Janibek Alimkhanuly (10-0, 6 KOs), 28, of Kazakhstan, and former titlist Hassan N’Dam (38-5, 21 KOs), 37, of France. That bout was originally scheduled for Top Rank’s Nov. 5 ESPN+ card but postponed because of N’Dam’s visa issues, which have been worked out but not in time for him to fight on next week’s card.

In the opening bout of the pay-per-view, lightweight prospects Raymond Muratalla (12-0, 10 KOs), 24, of Fontana, California, and Steven Ortiz (12-0, 3 KOs), 28, of Philadelphia, will meet in an eight-rounder.

There will bouts televised on ESPN or ESPN2 as a lead-in to the pay-per-view and one of those fights will be a 10-round featherweight bout between former junior featherweight titlist Isaac Dogboe (22-2, 15 KOs), 27, of Ghana, and former featherweight and junior lightweight title challenger Christopher Diaz (26-3, 16 KOs), 26, of Puerto Rico. Dogboe has won two in a row since back-to-back losses in WBO junior featherweight title fights to Emanuel Navarrete. Diaz is coming off a 12th-round knockout loss challenging Navarrete for his WBO featherweight title in April.

Heavyweight prospect Jared Anderson (10-0, 10 KOs), 21, of Toledo, Ohio, who is coming off a second-round destruction of Vladimir Tereshkin on the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder III undercard on Oct. 9, was due to be on the basic cable portion of Crawford-Porter in an eight-rounder against Oleksandr Teslenko (17-1, 13 KOs), 29, of a Ukraine native fighting out of Montreal. However, according to the sources, that bout will move to another date to be determined.

Quick hits

Good news: The Canelo Alvarez-Caleb Plant weigh-in at the MGM Grand Garden Arena will be open to the public next Friday. It will be the first Las Vegas weigh-in open to the public since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Doors open at 11 a.m. PT. The non-TV bouts will weigh in beginning at 12 p.m. with the bouts on the Showtime PPV portion of the card weighing in beginning at 1 p.m. Alvarez and Plant meet the following night to crown the first undisputed super middleweight world champion in division history.

Top Rank on Friday announced the rest of the card headlined by the Mikaela Mayer-Maiva Hamadouche women’s junior lightweight unification fight on Nov. 5 (ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET) at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. Junior lightweights Luis Melendez (16-1, 13 KOs), of Puerto Rico, and Cleveland’s Thomas Mattice (17-2-1, 13 KOs) will meet in the eight-round co-feature, which replaces Janibek Alimkhanuly-Hassan N’Dam middleweight bout that was postponed due to N’Dam’s visa issues. In other eight-rounders: junior lightweight Andres Cortes (15-0, 8 KOs) meets Mark Bernaldez (23-4, 17 KOs); lightweight Joseph Adorno (14-0-2, 12 KOs) meets Damian Araujo (21-3, 8 KOs); and middleweight Tyler Howard (19-0, 11 KOs) faces Ian Green (14-2, 11 KOs). In a four-rounder, James Prince-managed 17-year-old standout amateur Abdullah Mason makes his pro debut against Jaylan Phillips (1-0, 1 KO) in a four-round lightweight bout.

Weights from New York for Saturday’s Top Rank on ESPN+ card: Jose Zepeda 139.4 pounds, Josue Vargas 139; Carlos Caraballo 117.6, Jonas Sultan 117.6; Jonathan Guzman 123, Carlos Jackson 123; Mathew Gonzalez 143, Dakota Linger 141.8; Pablo Valdez 148.4, Alejandro Martinez 148.6; Jahi Tucker 147.6, Jorge Rodrigo Sosa 145.2; Ray Cuadrado 129.6, Michael Land 129.4; Kasir Goldston 142, Marc Misiura 142.2.

Weights from London for Saturday’s Matchroom Boxing card on DAZN: Chantelle Cameron 139.6 pounds, Mary McGee 139.7 (WBC/IBF women’s junior welterweight unification); Alen Babic 214.3, Eric Molina 257; Johnny Fisher 242, Alvaro Terrero 222; Craig Richards 175, Marek Matyja 174.5; Youssef Khoumari 129.75, Jorge Castaneda 129; Jordan Thompson 199.2, Piotr Podlucki 195.3.

Show and tell

One of my all-time favorite fighters is Miguel Cotto. He never ducked anyone, was in many terrific fights and faced numerous top opponents during his 2001 to 2017 career, including Canelo Alvarez, Sergio Martinez, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Austin Trout, Antonio Margarito (twice), Ricardo Mayorga, Joshua Clottey, Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, Carlos Quintana, Paulie Malignaggi, Ricardo Torres and Randall Bailey. I was fortunate to cover his entire career, including 26 of his 47 fights at ringside in places such as New York, Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orlando and San Juan. He became a superstar and one of the all-time greats from Puerto Rico. He is the only male boxer from the island to win world titles in four divisions (junior welterweight to middleweight). Now, he heads Cotto Promotions. He was always excellent to deal with during our many interactions and I like him a lot. Cotto turned 41 on Friday. He has had a few cards produced of him over the years but here are two cards of him in my collection that were made by Seidman Productions and included in the fight night program for what turned out to be the final bout of Cotto’s career against Sadam Ali in December 2017.

Inoue and Falcao photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank

A quick note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: If you have upgraded to a paid subscription, thank you! If you have not, please consider doing so to receive the most content. A paid subscription is your way of keeping this reader-supported newsletter going and supporting independent journalism. I hope you see value in getting timely and accurate news and information, and (hopefully) entertaining commentary and audio content, delivered directly to your inbox. You don’t have to look for boxing news and commentary, it comes to you. Please support independent boxing journalism.

I am beholden to no network, promoter, manager, sanctioning body or fighter. If you have read my work at all during the past 20-plus years I’ve covered professional boxing you know that I keep it real and that will not change. Thank you and I hope you enjoy.

To upgrade your subscription please go here: https://danrafael.substack.com/subscribe

Fight Freaks Unite