THE much-awaited rematch between Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire and Japanese Naoya “Monster” Inoue will be a unification world title fight on June 7 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, the boxingscene.com reported on its website yesterday.
Donaire will stake his World Boxing Council bantamweight strap while Inoue will have his World Boxing Association super bantamweight and International Boxing Federation bantamweight crowns on the line, veteran ring writer Jake Donovan reported.
Donovan wrote that the megabuck title clash will be aired live on Japan’s Amazon Prime Video while “the US television distribution rights were not made available…but that such plans will be revealed in the coming weeks.”
The boxers will return to the same arena of their exciting and action-packed initial encounter that was heralded as “The Ring Fight of the Year” in 2019 that left them with telltale signs of a brutal and physical match.
They fought on Nov. 11, 2019, with Inoue knocking down the much older Donaire in the 11th round to win both the WBA super and IBF bantam belts, but emerged from the ring with a fractured right orbital bone, in the exciting bantamweight finale of the World Boxing Series.
Unbeaten in 22 fights, spiked by 19 KOs, Inoue, 28, won the nod of the judges by scores of 114-113, 117-111 and 116-11.
He has made three successful title defenses since then, the latest an eighth-round TKO win over Thai Aran Dipaen last Dec. 14 at the Kogugikan Arena in Tokyo.
Donaire, 39, who has a record of 42 wins (28 KOs) and six losses, has bounced back from that setback with a flourish, capturing the WBC bantamweight crown on May 29, 2021 with a fourth-round knockout of erstwhile French champ Nordine Oubaali at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson City, California.
He made his first successful title defense by knocking out compatriot Reymart Gaballo in the fourth round last Dec. 11 at the same boxing site to remain as the oldest bantamweight champion in the world.
Now training in Las Vegas, Donaire had sought a unification title match with countryman John Riel Casimero, the reigning WBO bantamweight king, last Aug. 14 but that bout fizzled over dope testing issues and a war of words between the two fighters.
