Naoya Inoue’s defense of his undisputed junior featherweight championship against former unified champion Murodjon “MJ” Akhmadaliev this Sunday at IG Arena in Nagoya, Japan, had been one of the best fights in recent memory to fly under the radar of mainstream sports’ fans.
Inoue-Akhmadaliev finally surfaced as an event when Top Rank – no longer contracted with ESPN – announced on Thursday that it would stream the bout live and exclusively in the US and UK on its Top Rank Facebook channel.
The broadcast event will include a total of three fights – including bantamweight titleholder Yoshiki Takei’s defense against Christian Medina and a vacant “regular” minimumweight title fight between Yuni Takada and Ryusei Matsumoto. The stream will start at 4 a.m. ET on Sunday morning, and Inoue and Akhmadaliev are expected to make their ring walks at roughly 6:40 a.m. ET.
Japanese superstar Inoue, 30-0 (27 KOs), who most recently logged an eighth-round stoppage of Ramon Cardenas in May, will be making the fifth defense of his undisputed mantle and 26th consecutive world title appearance.
Akhmadaliev – a 14-1 (11 KOs) interim beltholder originally from Chust, Uzbekistan and now fighting out of Indio, California – has won three consecutive bouts by stoppage since he dropped a split decision to Marlon Tapales, the fighter Inoue knocked out in 2023 to unify all the division belts.
Takei, 11-0 (9 KOs), will be making the third defense of his title when he meets Mexico’s Medina, 25-4 (18 KOs), and Takada, 16-8-3 (6 KOs), will have his hands full with rising southpaw Matsumoto (6-0, 4 KOs).
Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.
