Last one I believed, Top Rank big boss Bob Arum confirms it. And that's why Murodjon Akhmadaliev is really trying hard to get at fight with Inoue as he was bypass before when he Inoue fought Nery. But as a mandatory, Murodjon Akhmadaliev wanted his chance here. But it's obvious that Inoue is not interested, they might just want to have a easy and less risk fight at the end of the year. Usually those fight date are reserved for their number 1 boxer, so in this case it will be Inoue again to fight at the end of the year. And if he wins then his next fight will be in the US at super featherweight. So it will send a lot of message to those champion at 126 lbs. But it's good to see how far Inoue can go up in weight to proved his greatness as so far he is on the top 5 pound for pound.
That's the thing with Inoue - he doesn’t seem to take on the toughest challengers left in the division. Or maybe they're planning to fight him after this one. Akhmadaliev is no joke either; he was an Olympic medalist, so he's already got some solid achievements before going pro. And he did lose to Marlon Tapales, so I feel like Inoue should be able to handle him easily. But I don’t really get why they’re not considering him first before this fight.
To be fair with Inoue, he had faced a lot of great boxers already and knock them out. It's that if he wants to clean the division for good, last man standing is Akhmadaliev as he is a former champion and was a Olympic medalist that why he is lobbying the camp of Inoue to face him but to no avail. They already had Sam Goodman who is for me a less opponent for Inoue and that's why others are saying that he is taking an easier route. Now, another Japanese name wanted to challenge Inoue and we have been hearing his name and that is Junto. So let's see, as per Bob Arum, after Goodman they are going to fight in the United States in featherweight division. But who knows, if financially if make sense for Inoue vs Nakatani early next year before going to a new weight class, then it could also be set up.