In this video posted online, advisor Sean Gibbons makes an appearance with WBO bantamweight titleholder John Riel Casimero to share some news that a big fight against Naoya Inoue could be back on track once coronavirus restrictions lighten up.
“Welcome to the John Riel Casimero training camp here in Las Vegas, Nevada,” Gibbons would begin. “And we just want to give you a quick update that we’ve spoken to Mr. Honda, Mr. Bob Arum now and we have great news to report, that once things start moving in the next couple of weeks Inoue should be able to pick up his passport and ‘The Monster’ should be on his way.
“The Monster’s coming. You’ve seen other things, you’ve seen other stuff trending — don’t believe it — The Monster’s coming.”
Now at this point it’s not exactly clear when travel restrictions might ease up enough that Inoue could make the trip from Japan to the U.S., so Bob Arum will obviously be looking at other contingency plans that include fighters that are physically in the country right now. But should that not be necessary this is a pretty good fight to be made with another world title unification on the line.
Casimero (29-4, 20 KOs) is most recently coming off a stoppage win over Zolani Tete last November and has won five straight fights, but would be going up against a fighter in Inoue (19-0, 16 KOs) who is currently perceived to be a rare talent in the sport of boxing. That said, Inoue did have a much tougher-than-expected fight against Nonito Donaire in his last outing, although that is much more of a credit to Donaire for putting on a great performance rather than any real criticism of Inoue.