Naoya Inoue, one of the world’s best pound-for-pound boxers, returns Tuesday morning to defend the undisputed junior featherweight championship against TJ Doheny (ESPN+, 5:45 a.m. ET). And he will have plenty of opportunities for more big fights with a win against Doheny. The four-division champion is coming off an impressive victory over Luis Nery in front of more than 44,000 fans at the Tokyo Dome in May, and a future fight with bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani could surpass that number.
One week later, the sport’s top star, Canelo Alvarez, puts his unified super middleweight championship on the line vs. Edgar Berlanga, a fight that Terence Crawford will be watching with interest. The following week, another attraction steps through the ropes when Anthony Joshua attempts to become a three-time heavyweight titleholder against Daniel Dubois, with the winner looking at a variety of big fights in the near future.
With a star-studded September on the horizon, let’s dive into your boxing questions in this ESPN mailbag:
There’s a good reason Inoue rarely fights in the U.S., and it’s the piles of money he generates as a mega star in Japan. And a matchup with Nakatani would represent his biggest fight yet in Japan. Not only is Nakatani also Japanese, but he would present Inoue’s most formidable challenge to date.
Nakatani has shown blistering power at 115 and 118 pounds, and he’s now just one weight class below Inoue. The fight could certainly materialize next year and would easily sell out the Tokyo Dome.
But Inoue is also now at the point he could probably sell out arenas around the world, including Madison Square Garden in New York. And if he fought Gervonta “Tank” Davis, that would be a marquee event in Las Vegas that would generate serious business, especially on U.S. PPV, pushing it past the money that could be generated in Japan with Nakatani.
The issue with a fight with “Tank,” of course, is the weight. Davis fights three weight classes above Inoue, so it’s likely nothing more than a fantasy fight. A matchup with Nakatani, though, appears on the horizon.
Garcia isn’t eligible to return to the ring until April 20 — one year after his upset victory over Devin Haney, which was later overturned to a no contest due to a Garcia’s positive test for the banned substance ostarine.
In the months since his fight with Haney, Garcia was arrested and charged with vandalism following an alleged incident at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills hotel; was expelled by the WBC after using racial slurs on social media; and has claimed numerous times he would enter rehab.
What’s clear: Garcia remains one of the top stars in boxing, and a rematch with Haney is among the biggest possible fights. What’s far less certain: Garcia’s readiness to fight.
Garcia will need to prove he’s fit to fight and might even want a tune-up bout following a year away from the ring. Or he could head straight into a return bout with Haney, though the contract weight will also have to be ironed out. Garcia weighed 143.2 pounds for a 140-pound title bout with Haney.
The rematch makes far more sense at 147 pounds. But first, Garcia has a lot of hurdles to clear until he’s reinstated in April.
Not sure the decision was highly controversial, though you have a good argument if you scored the fight for Ismail Madrimov. The fight wasn’t all that entertaining, and there isn’t much demand for a rematch. There’s virtually no chance we see Crawford and Madrimov share the ring again.
Crawford turns 37 next month and doesn’t plan to fight too much longer. The only fight he’s targeting right now is a bout with Canelo at 168 pounds. Yes, that’s two more weight classes for Crawford to jump after he just made his 154-pound debut. But at this stage, he wants a daunting challenge and the chance to define his legacy. It doesn’t hurt, of course, that Crawford would stand to earn a career-high payday by multiples in a fight against Alvarez.
If Crawford can’t lure Canelo into the ring next, he could always turn to a matchup with unified junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora, but “Bud” will first exhaust every possible avenue to land his dream fight.
As for Madrimov, he certainly earned another big fight with his performance. Perhaps he’ll land a shot at Vergil Ortiz Jr., who also fights on DAZN. That’s a compelling matchup and a chance for Madrimov to score a big win.
Zhang, coming off a spectacular fifth-round TKO win over Deontay Wilder in June, is in line for a marquee matchup. That was Zhang’s second consecutive fight on a Riyadh Season card, which has featured a substantial commitment to the heavyweight division through six events.