By Jim Maltzman: IBF/WBA bantamweight champion Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue (19-0, 16 KOs) and WBO champ John Riel Casimero (29-4, 20 KOs) could be fighting four months from now in September in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is targeting September for the Inoue vs. Casimero unification fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, according to Steve Kim of ESPN. We’ll find out the exact date later from Arum.
This is going to be a war just like Inoue’s clash contest against Nonito Donaire. Casimero is faster on his feet than Donaire, and it’s not going to be as easy for Inoue to land.
Inoue and the 31-year-old Casimero were supposed to have fought last month on April 25, but it was postponed.
Arum targeting September for Inoue vs. Casimero
“We would be able to bring in high-rollers from Japan, and set it up at the MGM Grand, or the Mandalay Bay for 2,500, or 3,000 (fans),” said Arum to ESPN.com on the Inoue-Casimero fight in September.
Casimero vs. ‘Monster’ Inoue is a fight that a lot of American boxing fans are looking forward to. Inoue looked excellent in his win over WBA bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire on November 7 last year in Saitama, Japan.
The victory for the 27-year-old Monster Inoue won him the Ali Trophy in the World Boxing Super Series tournament. However, it was a difficult fight for Inoue, as the 37-year-old former four-division world champion Donaire showed that he still had a lot of punching power.
Inoue had never been hit like that before in the professional game, and he was stunned at one point in the fight. In the end, Inoue had his arm raised in winning a 12 round unanimous decision. But his nose was broken, right eye ridge fractured and he was cut as well.
Donaire asked for a rematch, but Inoue is moving on towards the unification match against Casimero. Nonito can put himself in the driver’s seat for a fight against the winner of the Inoue vs. Casimero if he beats WBC bantamweight champion Nordine Oubaali.
Those two will be fighting later on this year. Donaire has an excellent chance of beating Oubaali to position himself to fight the winner of the Inoue-Casimero fight.
John Riel Casimero coming off win over Zolani Tete
Casimero looked powerful in his last contest in stopping WBO 118-pound champion Zolani Tete in round three last November. After starting off slowly in the first two rounds, Casimero suddenly opened up with the heavy artillery in round three in dropping the hard-hitting Tete twice. Casimero beat Tete in front of his own fans in Birmingham, England.
The referee stopped the fight after Casimero Flurried on the badly hurt Tete moments after he got up from the second knockdown. Where Tete made a mistake in the fight was him relaxing in the clinch. He wasn’t prepared for Casimero unloading on him with two consecutive powerful right hands.
Tete went down from the second right that Casimero hit him with, and he wasn’t able to recover from it. Casimero dropped Tete a second time with a flurry of shots that culminated with him landing a left to the head.
Casimero has the punching power to knockout Inoue, but he’ll need to be careful not to get hit by his huge shots. Inoue has the speed advantage, and he’s very accurate with his punches. For Casimero to win, he’s going to need to take some of those big shots from Inoue and fire back with his own.
One thing that Casimero has going for him is Inoue is coming off of a damaging fight against Donaire. Inoue might not be quite as fresh as he was going into the Donaire fight.
