There was a time when Murodjon Akhmadaliev wondered if he’d ever get his shot at Naoya Inoue. It overlapped with the period when boxing fans wondered if Inoue would ever engage in an all-Japanese blockbuster with Junto Nakatani.
Fast-forward to present day, where one fight is an immediate reality and the other is finally on the horizon for the first half of 2026. Unless of course, Akhmadaliev can ruin everyone else’s plans now that his own have finally come to fruition as challenges for Inoue’s undisputed 122lbs championship.
“My job is to take those belts and ruin those plans,” Akhmadaliev told BoxingScene. “I am very grateful for this opportunity to fight in Japan, I’ve been waiting a long time and look forward to many more fights here in the future.
“But I’m going to Japan with one job, and that is to beat the man everyone says is one of the best [pound-for-pound] fighters in the world and take all his world titles.”
Inoue-Akhmadaliev will air live on Lemino in Japan and Top Rank’s Facebook page in the U.S. and U.K. this Sunday from IG Arena in Nagoya, Japan.
Inoue, 30-0 (27 KOs), attempts his sixth overall defense of at least two 122lbs titles and fifth as the undisputed king.
Uzbekistan’s Akhmadaliev, 14-1 (11 KOs) – a 2016 Olympic bronze medalist - aims to become a two-time titlist at the weight, having previously held the WBA and IBF belts. His three-year reign was snakebit by the Covid pandemic, illness, injuries and ultimately a highly questionable split decision defeat to Marlon Tapales in April 2023.
The timing could not have been worse for such a setback.
Inoue was on his way up to the division after having fully unified at bantamweight. Akhmadaliev’s defeat pushed him further down the queue for such a dream assignment. Worse, Inoue went on to face the Philippines’ Tapales after he claimed the WBC and WBO titles in an eighth-round knockout of Stephen Fulton in July 2023. Inoue then halted Tapales in the tenth round to become a two-division undisputed champion.
Meanwhile, Akhmadaliev waited… and waited… and waited for his turn. He became the WBA mandatory challenger in a December 2023 knockout win over Kevin Gonzalez, just two weeks prior to Inoue’s triumph over Tapales.
Confusion and frustration ensued when the WBA twice ordered Inoue-Akhmadaliev, only to have to further wait out the ugly side of the sport.
Akhmadaliev was sidelined for part of 2024 with an injury and then withdrew from a planned stay busy fight last summer when it was believed that he would next face Inoue.
The fight never materialized, however. Inoue was instead granted permission to pursue a voluntary title defense against TJ Doheny. He was again stalled out when it was decided that Australia’s Sam Goodman – the IBF and WBO mandatory – was next in line.
Akhmadaliev was granted a consolation prize; an interim WBA title fight against Ricardo Espinoza, whom he annihilated inside of three rounds last December 14 in Monte Carlo, Monaco. His fight was scheduled for ten days ahead of Inoue’s planned fight with Goodman, but which was delayed when the Australian contender suffered a cut on his final day of sparring.
Inoue saw their rescheduled fight canceled outright when Goodman was once again injured during training. He went on to face and beat Ye Joon Kim, then immediately moved on to another voluntary defense in his stateside return versus Ramon Cardenas.
“I don’t know what happened that we didn’t get the fight before now,” Akhmadaliev wondered. “We demanded the fight as the mandatory and had all the rights as the mandatory challenger to fight Inoue and were promised more than once. We were supposed to rematch Tapales, but then Inoue fought him instead after he [beat Fulton]. We were supposed to get the winner of that fight, since I won the eliminator; he then fought [WBC mandatory Luis Nery] instead.
I fought for the (WBA interim) title. He fought twice more after that but never against me. It was always just pushed back and we spent a lot of time waiting for a fight that never happened.”
Akhmadaliev finally received his assurance that his turn would come next – an agreement that was made even before Inoue entered the ring for his May 4 clash with Cardenas in Las Vegas.
Even with that assurance, Akhmadaliev and his team made sure to take out an insurance policy.
“To be honest, I still wasn’t confident that the fight would be next because it wasn’t finalized,” admitted Akhmadaliev. “I know it was announced but we still had to wait for everything – the date, the location, and everything – to be fully signed.
“So, no I wasn’t confident but I was at least very hopeful by that point that it would happen.”
A stay-busy fight was provided for the Uzbek southpaw, who faced Luis Castillo as part of a Matchroom Boxing-Mexico card on May 30 in Guadalajara.
Akhmadaliev won via eighth-round knockout. It matched the amount of time it took Inoue to dispose of the pesky Cardenas four weeks earlier – though only after the four-division champ overcame a stunning second-round knockdown.
“At the time, we just saw it as a stay busy fight,” Akhmadeliev said of the opportunity. “I took the fight very seriously, as I do all of my opponents. But at the time, we had two options. We had the option to go straight to the Inoue fight and not risk anything.
“The other option was to stay sharp and work on our skills and tools in the ring. We decided to do that, to stay busy and just get some rounds in to work on my timing.”
The payoff was that Akhmadaliev will now enjoy his quickest turnaround since the end of 2018, his first year as a pro.
In that sense, the playing field is level aside from Akhmadaliev having to travel to Japan. He enters the championship affair now fighting for the third time in nine months, while Inoue enjoys his fourth fight in a little over a year.
Irrespective to where they’re presently at in their careers, each will get the best available version of the other on Sunday.
“I was ready last year, every time the WBA ordered the fight. And I am ready now,” Akhmadaliev insisted. “It didn’t matter when he faced me, the fight always ends the same. To me, it’s God’s plan that it is happening now. I take it for what it is. It was God’s plan for it to take place on September 14 which means it was the best time.
“I am fully prepared, more than any other time. I’m a mature fighter and just a better all-around fighter than I have been in any other point in my career.”
Additional motivation comes not so much from what lies ahead with a win, but the plans he gets to ruin for his long-sought rival.
After years of their careers running parallel, Inoue and Nakatani, 31-0 (24 KOs), are finally destined to meet as early as next spring.
As previously reported by BoxingScene, Nakatani has abandoned his bantamweight championship reign to campaign at junior featherweight. His divisional debut is expected to come later this year – on a show with a tentative headliner featuring Inoue against Mexico’s Alan David Picasso in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Of course, Inoue has to first get past Akhmadaliev to move on not only with Picasso, but then onto what would be the biggest fight in the history of Japanese boxing.
Needless to say, an Akhmadaliev win on Sunday will ruin a lot of plans – and the money to go with it. If nothing else, it would provide a unique ending to his first career fight in Japan, though he’s confident that he will retain many of the new fans he’s made ever since this fight was announced.
“I’m not worried,” Akhmadaliev insisted. “I know people will be upset when I ruin those plans, but Japanese fans are like Uzbek fans. We are very embracing of all people, it’s just in our culture. Same with Japanese people.
“I don’t expect any negativity. The Japanese boxing fans are very knowledgeable. They respect that we go in there with a job to do and I expect them to embrace my greatness with me.”
