Top Rank Presents Undisputed Super Bantamweight Championship: Naoya Inoue vs. Ye Joon Kim
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 22 Jan 2025
Friday, January 24
Live & Exclusively on ESPN+ in the U.S.
Top Rank Presents Undisputed Super Bantamweight Championship:
Naoya Inoue vs. Ye Joon Kim
Friday, January 24
Live & Exclusively on ESPN+ in the U.S.
(Jan. 21, 2025)—Top Rank Boxing on ESPN: Inoue vs. Kim will stream live on Friday, Jan. 24, with a special early morning start time of 4:15 a.m. ET/ 1:15 a.m. PT exclusively on ESPN+ in the U.S. The event takes place at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
Pound-for-pound great Naoya Inoue will defend his undisputed super bantamweight crown against Korean challenger Ye Joon Kim.
Inoue (28-0, 25 KOs) seeks his 10th consecutive knockout while making an unprecedented third defense of his undisputed title.
The 31-year-old unified the bantamweight division in 2022 by stopping Paul Butler, then claimed undisputed status in a second weight class with knockout victories over Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales in 2023. In May, he made history by headlining the first boxing card at Tokyo Dome since 1990, rising from a first-round knockdown to stop former two-weight world champion Luis Nery in the sixth. Inoue followed up the Nery triumph with a seventh-round TKO of former champion TJ Doheny in September.
Kim (21-2-2, 13 KOs) turned pro in 2012 and has spent most of his career fighting in Korea. He is a former IBF Asia super bantamweight champion who has won two straight since a majority decision defeat to veteran Rob Diezel in Auburn, Washington. He is currently ranked No. 11 in the world by the WBO.
Before the main event, the 12-round welterweight co-feature showcases world-ranked welterweight contender Jin Sasaki (18-1-1, 17 KOs) against Shoki Sakai (29-14-3, 15 KOs) for the WBO Asia Pacific and OPBF belts.
Timothy Bradley Jr. and Bernardo Osuna will call the action.
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