Looks like a date and location has been finalized for the clash between Naoya Inoue and Luis Nery.

Inoue will defend his Ring junior featherweight championship on Monday, May 6 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. The fight will stream live on an ESPN platform, likely ESPN+, and on Lemino in Japan.

Boxingscene’s Jake Donovan was the first to confirm the date, and several media publications in Japan are also reporting May 6 as the date of the fight.

The fight was already rumored to have been verbally agreed to days after Inoue stopped Marlon Tapales on December 26 to become the undisputed champion. Promoter Hideyuki Ohashi recently announced a plan for Inoue to fight three times in 2024, which included a fight against Nery.

Luis Nery – Photo courtesy of Zanfer Promotions

A fight between Inoue and Nery could produce an exciting fight given their high-volume punch count. Nery is currently rated No. 5 by The Ring at 122 pounds.

Inoue (26-0, 23 knockouts), who resides in nearby Yokohama, has a significant following in Japan and is one of the most famous celebrities in the country. He has sold out large arenas, including his last three fights, which took place at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, and at the cavernous Super Arena in Saitama.

A Inoue-Nery fight could bring a record-breaking crowd of around 50,000 to the Tokyo Dome. The venue was used for the Mike Tyson-James ‘Buster’ Douglas undisputed heavyweight title fight in February 1990, which Douglas won by knockout in one of the greatest upsets in sports history. Back then, the Tokyo Dome was also called Korakuen Stadium.

The Yomiuri Giants of the Nippon Professional Baseball League play at the Tokyo Dome.

There was an obstacle in terms of Nery fighting in Japan. Nery was banned from fighting there by the Japan Boxing Commission after his two fights with Shinsuke Yamanaka. In their first in 2017, Nery stopped WBC world bantamweight titleholder Yamanaka in round four, but tested positive for the banned substance zilpaterol.

In a rematch in March 2018, Nery stopped Yamanaka in round two. At the previous day’s weigh-in, Nery weighed three pounds above the bantamweight limit of 118 pounds. Yamanaka chose to have the fight go on, as the vacant WBC title was only on the line for him.

According to ESPN’s Mike Coppinger, officials with the Japan Boxing Commission have assured Nery and his team the ban will be overturned for the fight against Inoue to move forward.

Nery (35-1, 27 KOs) has won his last four bouts since a knockout loss to Brandon Figueroa in May 2021 in a junior featherweight title fight.

The 29-year-old Nery, who resides in Tijuana, Mexico, became the WBC mandatory challenger, stopping Azat Hovhannisyan on February 18 in one of the best action fights of 2023. In his last bout on July 8, the southpaw Nery stopped Froilan Saludar in the second round.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at [email protected]

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