Negotiations are well underway for Naoya Inoue to end the year in the ring with Alan Picasso.
If all goes to plan, in the main event of the night, Inoue would be defending his undisputed super bantamweight championship against the Mexican.
After being named as the super bantamweight mandatory challenger earlier in the year, Picasso pulled out of a planned summer showdown with undisputed champion Inoue.
Turki Alalshikh has now told The Ring Magazine: “In December we [will] have the monster, the real monster.
“On December 27, we have Inoue, and we are thinking now that we are close to [finalising Alan] Picasso as [the] main event.”
‘Monster’ Inoue’s next scheduled fight is against Murodjon Akhmadaliev, on September 14 in Japan.
Although the Saudi boxing chief is looking past that September bout, with his sights set firmly on creating a card centred around Japanese fighters facing Mexican/Mexican-American foes.
“All [of] the card will be built as big fights, the biggest fight between Japan and Mexico,” he stated.
Once the fight is over the line, Inoue will be fighting both Akhmadaliev and Picasso in the space of four months.
According to Alalshikh, Inoue vs Picasso is now close to being agreed.
But for the ideal vision to come into fruition, Inoue would need to come out of his bout with Akhmadaliev victorious.
Akhmadaliev, who is currently 14-1-0, is a former unified WBA and IBF super bantamweight champion.
As his long-time WBA mandatory, the Uzbek’s promoter Eddie Hearn has stated before that he feels Inoue has ‘ducked’ his fighter.
Inoue is set to return to the ring on September 14 against AkhmadalievNaoki Fukuda/Top Rank Akhmadaliev’s promoter, Hearn, has also been vying to make this fight happenGetty GettyProviding he wins, Picasso will be Inoue’s next opponent[/caption]When Tapales had a shot at Inoue in 2023, following on from the former’s upset split decision win over Akhmadaliev.
The Uzbek fighter watched in 2023 as the Japanese star went on to become an undisputed super bantamweight champion after his knockout win against Marlon Tapales.
Currently sitting at ranked No. 2 on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list, Inoue will be facing the 24-year-old if Turki gets his way.
Inoue remains undefeated in his professional career, with 27 of his 30 wins coming by way of knockout.
While Picasso has had 17 KO wins across his professional career of 31-0-1.
Turki will be hoping that the bout doesn’t fall through this time around.
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