Naoya Inoue and Ramon Cardenas will meet tonight for the undisputed junior featherweight championship.

The bout will see Japan’s Inoue return to Las Vegas for a fight for the first time in four years, and what better weekend to top a bill in Sin City than Cinco de Mayo. Inoue will have a chance to steal the applause away from Mexico’s favorite son, Canelo Alvarez, after his lackluster contest with William Scull last night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The undisputed champion Inoue, 29-0 (26 KOs), comes into the contest on the back of some criticism over his recent choice of opponents. Largely considered by most as one of, if not the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet, for his domination spreading across four weight divisions, the names on Inoue’s resume of late have not lived up to that. Inoue came under fire for taking on TJ Doheny and Ye Joon Kim rather than facing his mandatory challenger Murodjon Akhmadaliev.

It has now been confirmed that Inoue will face Uzbekistan’s Akhmadaliev, 13-1 (10 KOs), on September 14 in Japan, should he be victorious tonight. Standing in his way is Cardenas, who has the chance to embrace his family heritage and cause one of the biggest upsets ever on Cinco de Mayo weekend.

Cardenas, 26-1 (14 KOs), has made a name for himself recently fighting in entertaining contests on ProBox TV. The Mexican/American never seems to be in a dull fight, and has impressed with victories over Bryan Acosta, Israel Rodriguez Picazo and Rafael Pedroza. Cardenas is a fighter, typical of his Mexican heritage, that will bring the action on the famous fighting holiday – unlike William Scull last night.

Cardenas may take confidence from his compatriot Luis Nery’s performance against Inoue. Like Nery, Cardenas will fire in hooks from low down – something that Nery had success with early into his clash with Inoue. In the first, Nery caught Inoue with a southpaw left hook that sent the undisputed champion swirling to the floor in a heap. Inoue eventually recovered and went on to stop Nery in Round 6, but the opener represented one of the closest moments  anyone has gotten to stopping the undefeated champion.

Inoue looks to be as close to perfect of a fighter as you can get, bar the torrid opener against Nery and a vicious left hook from Nonito Doniaire in the first of their two encounters, the Japanese great has looked untouchable as a professional. Not only has he looked punch perfect, he has also carried his devastating power all the way up from as low as junior flyweight. Inoue is well balanced and presses the action well with his short, sharp right hands.

He will not have to go looking for Cardenas, who like many Mexican fighters, only know one style of fighting, and that's offensive, especially on Cinco de Mayo weekend. Cardenas’ biggest strength, his pressure and aggression, will likely be his downfall in this contest. Although Cardenas will likely outweigh Inoue on fight night, it is unlikely the Mexican will be able to push Inoue back for large periods of the fight.

Japan’s Inoue hits too hard and is one of the best at making the ring smaller and smaller as he edges closer to land one of his crippling blows. It is unlikely Cardenas has the ability to outbox Inoue on the back foot, and eventually Inoue will get the Mexican exactly where he wants him to land a finishing blow to get the Cinco de Mayo knockout that escaped Alvarez, Haney, Lopez and Romero.