Inoue-Dasmarinas IBF title fight may happen in US
CEBU, Philippines — Naoya Inoue’s IBF bantamweight title defense against Filipino mandatory challenger Michael Dasmarinas tentatively set this April could take place outside of Japan, most probably in the United States.
Inoue-Dasmarinas IBF title fight may happen in US
Given the current situation, Naoya Inoue’s IBF bantamweight title defense against Filipino mandatory challenger Michael Dasmarinas tentatively set this April could take place outside of Japan, most probably in the United States.
The handlers of the 27-year-old Inoue, who is also the reigning WBA 118-pound champion, want the championship bout to be held in Japan but it seems unlikely because of the travel restrictions in their country brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Here’s the problem with Inoue – they want his fight to be in Japan, his next fight to be in Japan,” said Top Rank chairman Bob Arum, who co-promotes Inoue, in a report by Keith Idec of boxingscene.com.
“The problem is, if you’re not from Japan, you can’t get into Japan. There’s a complete lockdown. Even if you’re willing to spend 14 days in quarantine, you can’t get in now. So, to say, ‘Yeah, it’s gonna happen in April,’ who the hell knows? Yeah, we’d love to have him fight in April. But we may have to bring him out of Japan and have him fight someplace else,” added the veteran promoter.
Inoue, sporting a perfect 20-0 record with 17KOs, last fought on October 31 last year at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, knocking out Australia’s Jason Moloney to keep his IBF and WBC titles.
Dasmarinas (30-2-1, 20KOs), on the other hand, earned a mandatory shot at Inoue after edging fellow countryman Kenny Demecillo (14-5-2, 8KOs) by unanimous decision in their 12-round IBF eliminator on March 23, 2019 at the Resorts World Hotel in Pasay City. — EBV
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