By Miguel Rivera
Japan's Naoya Inoue (14-0, 12 KOs), who is already regarded as one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world, has requested not to be involved in the upcoming Superfly 2 card, which is being targeted for the first quarter on 2018 - because he wants to make another defense in Japan before returning to the United States.
On the first Superfly card, which took place on September 9th, WBC champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai defeated Roman Gonzalez by knockout, Juan Francisco Estrada beat Carlos Cuadras and Inoue made his American debut with a stoppage of Antonio Nieves to retain the WBO super flyweight belt.
The project for the second card would be a mandatory fight between Estrada and Rungvisai for the WBC title - but the champion from Thailand has already made a request to the WBC to do a voluntary defense back home.
However, Inoue in particular would not be ready to return to America by the first quarter of the year. His promoter, Teiken Promotions, would like to place him on a New Year's Eve card in Japan.
"There are fights at the table, everyone wants to go [on that event], Khalid Yafai is there, Inoue wants to wait a little longer before returning to America.... he wants to return [back to America] in fall. We will see what Chocolatito wants to do and we will try to find the best combinations," promoter Tom Loefler said to ESPN Deportes.
"Superfly was my favorite event this year, we saw great fights... Chocolatito-Rungvisai, Quadras-Estrada, the Japanese Inoue against Nieves, it was a great show. We are talking to HBO to make Superfly 2, the fight between Estrada and Rungvisai, it will be a great event, there is a lot of talent in the division, we will try to make it happen. Everyone in Los Angeles was talking about [Superfly], everyone was happy."
