Japanese boxing star and unified WBA and IBF bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue will return to the ring on June 19th putting his IBF Bantamweight title on the line against mandatory challenger Michael Dasmarinas. This will be Inoue’s fourth defense of his IBF championship since winning the belt in May 2019.
Naoya Inoue is currently undefeated with a 20-0 record and 17 wins coming by knockout. He turned pro in 2012 and made an immediate impact only taking him five fights before he won his first world title. He previously held world championships in the light flyweight and super flyweight division before moving up to the bantamweight division in 2018.
In his first fight at bantamweight, in the first round of the World Boxing Super Series tournament, Inoue won the WBA (regular) Bantamweight championship after beating Jamie McDonnell by first round knockout. He successfully defended his title in the second round of the tournament against Juan Carlos Payano in another first-round knockout victory.
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In the semi-finals, Inoue won the IBF championship against previously undefeated Emmanuel Rodriguez by second-round knockout. In the finals of the World Boxing Super Series, Inoue faced Nonito Donaire in what was a unification bout with Donaire’s WBA Super World Bantamweight title also on the line. Inoue and Donaire put on an amazing performance that saw the former walk away with the win by unanimous decision.
Naoya Inoue’s last bout saw him fight in the United States for just the second time in his career successfully defending his IBF and WBA belts against Jason Moloney by seventh-round knockout.
Michael Dasmarinas, like Naoya Inoue, turned pro in 2012 and currently holds a 31-2-1 overall record with 20 wins coming by knockout. Meanwhile, his resume opponents have not been as impressive with 19 of his 33 opponents holding a losing record at the time of their fight.
Dasmarinas has had some success, notably winning the IBO Bantamweight title in April 2018. He earned the opportunity to challenge for the IBF Bantamweight title in March 2019 when he beat Kenny Demecillo by unanimous decision in a title eliminator.