^^ It will be huge if suddenly Inoue decided to fight Casimero instead of unifying all the belts against Tapales. However, it will really be a big reason for Inoue to go for Casimero first. There should be somewhat that evoke Inoue, maybe he just want to shut the mouth of Casimero for good or just let Tapales fight for the mandatory first and then see how it goes for Marlon. And then after he disposed of John Riel then they will go after Tapales next. But let's see, I'm also on the side of Inoue vs Tapales happening maybe November-December, or at least this year and then Inoue unifying the belts in the bantamweight/super bantamweight in the modern era so that is another history for the Japanese.
That's just the second option. Inoue has a bigger chance of winning against Tapales than against Casimero, so he would not choose a hard battle with less reward. If he beats Tapales, he will be holding all the belts, and in that position, he can choose to fight any fighter he wants. Maybe Casimero's name will come up, maybe...
Right now, we should remain optimistic that this fight will happen, despite there being some rumors that it might not happen. The longer they prolong this, the more the excitement will die.
I'm saying if it's not possible this year, make it early next year. I think that's reasonable already.
That is the best thing that we can do right now, hope that we can see this fight at least happening this year. It was touted to be in November, but so far there's no update, we just know that the fight will be in Japan and pegged the month as November.
Inoue was not badly damage against Fulton, so maybe he just need a couple of weeks rest and he is back again. We've seen videos of him and his brother sparring, as Takuma will have to defend his belt against another Fiipino. So maybe Naoya Inoue is already cleared to fight, but it's just a matter of negotiating with team Tapales and for the to be ok with the purse split.
Are they still with that purse split? Its true that as long we arent making or seeing some updates or news in regarding with those kind of issues and havent seen any announcement or words from them then it would really be safe to assume out that it is really that still on or really that still in track for it to happen.