IBF, WBA and WBC bantamweight champion Naoya "Monster" Inoue (23-0, 20 KO) faces 33-year-old a two-time bantamweight titlist Paul Butler (34-2, 15 KO) for the 118-lb undisputed championship in Japan.
“I want to write my name in the history of boxing and change the history of Japanese boxing,” Inoue said. “For the next two months, I want to do everything what I can, to get into the ring. Butler is a versatile fighter with no obvious flaws, but I expect to be able to gradually weaken him and knock him out. I want to crush him with my might to become the undisputed world champion."
Butler did not attend the press conference but released a press statement following the official announcement of the fight. “I've been boxing for over 20 years and all my successes and failures have brought me here to the biggest fight of my career with the biggest prize in boxing at stake,” Butler said. “I have no illusions about the task ahead of me, but I go to bed with the thought of the title of absolute world champion.”
The winner of this fight will become the first undisputed bantamweight champion of the four-main belt era. Enrique Pinder of Panama was the last undisputed world champion in this weight in 1972, and then he needed to unify the WBC and WBA titles for this.
Fight card:
▪️Naoya Inoue vs. Paul Butler, 12 rounds, for WBC, IBF, WBA and WBO bantamweight unification ▪️Yoshiki Takei vs. Bruno Tarimo, 12 rounds, junior featherweight ▪️Andy Hiraoka vs. Min Ho Jung, 12 rounds, junior welterweight ▪️Satoshi Shimizu vs. Landy Cris Leon, 12 rounds, featherweight ▪️Takuma Inoue vs. Jade Bornea, 10 rounds, featherweight ▪️Peter McGrail vs. Hironori Miyake, 8 rounds, junior featherweight
