By Joe Koizumi
Photos: Naoki Fukuda

Three plus one makes four. Simple arithmetic. Three-belt bantam champ Naoya Inoue (23-0, 20 KOs) will square off against one-belt titleholder Paul Butler (34-2, 15 KOs), UK, in Tokyo, Japan, on December 13. The winner will take all the four belts to be the undisputed champion. It was announced by Ohashi Promotions on Thursday.

WBC, WBA and IBF kingpin Naoya said, “It’s my great pleasure to participate in the long-anticipated unification bout with WBO ruler Paul Butler, who I respect as a smart and experienced titlist. This is the last chapter for me as a bantamweight, but it is also an important milestone for my future career. I’d like to concentrate on fighting such an excellent champion as Butler.”

The sensational battle will be supported by good competitive undercard bouts, as follows:

IBF#9, WBO#13 Andy Hiraoka (21-0, 16 KOs) will put his WBO Asia Pacific 140-pound belt on the line against Korean champ Minho Jung (13-3-2, 3 KOs), over twelve.

OPBF super-bantam champ, former K-1 world titlist Yoshiki Takei (5-0, 5 KOs) will risk his belt against more experienced IBF#7 Bruno Tarimo (26-3-2, 5 KOs), a Tanzanian residing in Australia, over twelve.

Naoya’s brother, splendid speedster WBC#3 Takuma Inoue (16-1, 3 KOs) will face Filipino Jake Bornea (not his brother IBF #1 junior bantam Jade) (14-3-1, 7 KOs) over ten.

OPBF featherweight champ, 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Satoshi Shimizu (10-1, 9 KOs) will participate in a title or non-title bout.

2021 Tokyo Olympian Peter McGrail (4-0, 3 KOs), UK, will meet Hironori Miyake (9-12, 1 KO) over eight. Peter is a stablemate of WBO champion Paul Butler.

The Ariame Arena, the capacity of which is 15,000, was newly constructed for the sake of Tokyo Olympic Games, when it was utilized for volleyball games. It is the first time for the Arena to be used for a boxing event. We have a couple of months to talk deeply about the Inoue-Butler unification bout. No need to rush now.

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