Both Inoue brothers will have the biggest fights of their careers on November 7th in Tokyo. Before Naoya squares off against Nonito Donaire in the World Boxing Super Series bantamweight final, Takuma will attempt to unify his interim WBC bantamweight title with full champion Nordine Oubaali.
The fight has been in the works for a while; Inoue (13-0, 3 KO) claimed mandatory status last September with a decision over Filipino veteran Mark John Yap, but had to settle for an interim title fight with Petch Sor Chitpattana while Oubaali (16-0, 12 KO) defeated former Olympic foe Rau’shee Warren for Luis Nery’s former belt. Oubaali also made an optional defense against Arthur Villanueva in July, stopping him in six.
According to the WBC, whoever wins this will then have to face one of the sanctioning body’s favorites in Nery.
BoxRec has these two ranked #7 and #6, respectively, at 118 pounds. Even without the link to the main event, this is an excellent co-feature. Now, let’s see if we can’t get Koki Inoue a fight on this card.