Press Release:
Japanese fighting icon Naoya Inoue is coming back to America.
The pound-for-pound king will defend his undisputed junior featherweight world title against San Antonio native Ramon Cardenas on Sunday, May 4, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Inoue has not fought in America since 2021 and has since won a pair of undisputed titles, cementing his status as a generational power-punching force.
Inoue (29-0, 26 KOs) is 24-0 with 22 knockouts in world title fights, a staggering championship run that began with his April 2014 knockout of Adrian Hernandez to win the WBC light flyweight title. He continued his decade-plus run of dominance with seven defenses of the WBO junior bantamweight world title before a nine-fight run at bantamweight that concluded with his stoppage of Paul Butler to win the undisputed title. Inoue toppled future Hall of Famer Nonito Donaire twice at bantamweight, including a second-round stoppage in June 2022. Inoue became the undisputed junior featherweight champion in just two fights, knocking out then-unified champions Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales in 2023.
Last May, he packed over 50,000 fans into the Tokyo Dome, rising from a first-round knockdown to stop former two-division king Luis Nery in six. Inoue has since made two more defenses of the undisputed crown, knocking out TJ Doheny in seven and late replacement Ye Joon Kim in four.
Cardenas (26-1, 14 KOs) enters his first world title assignment on a 14-fight winning streak, a run of success that began with a September 2017 decision victory over Gabino Hernandez. He graduated to contender in 2024 with a pair of gut checks, forcing Israel Rodriguez Picazo to retire on his stool with a broken jaw and knocking out Eduardo Ramirez in the ninth round of a competitive fight. Cardenas returned to headline in San Antonio last month, overcoming a sixth-round knockdown to earn a unanimous decision over the previously unbeaten Bryan Acosta.
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