"Boxing 2024 Annual Outstanding Athlete Awards Ceremony" (March 31st)

Naoya Inoue (31) of Ohashi, the unified world super bantamweight champion of four organizations who won the MVP award for the eighth time in seven consecutive years, called for a match against WBC world bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani (27) of M.T. "at the Tokyo Dome one year from now" during his acceptance speech.

The two won the Technique Award and KO Award and sat next to each other on the same stage. Naoya was called to represent the professional athletes and gave a speech.

During the meeting, he turned to Nakatani and called out, "Nakatani-kun, let's liven up Japanese boxing at the Tokyo Dome one year from now." While Chairman Ohashi's expression crumbled, Nakatani responded with a smile. "By all means, let's do it," he said, stood up, and walked next to Naoya, shaking his hand firmly.

Inoue said on stage, "Thank you very much for receiving the 2024 Best Athlete of the Year Award. I believe this is also thanks to the cooperation and support of Chairman Ohashi, the staff, all the people involved, my father who is my trainer, and my family. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude. Thank you very much." "This year marks my 13th year since my debut, and this year's matches are scheduled to continue in May, September, and December. Recently, many fans and people involved have been calling for me to do my best this year in preparation for the big domestic match," he vowed. At this point, he suddenly turned around and called out, "So Nakatani-kun, let's liven up Japanese boxing here at the Tokyo Dome in a year." Nakatani responded, "Please."

Momentum for a match between these two fighters, who have been knocking out strong overseas opponents one after another in world championships, gradually began to build around autumn last year. When Inoue was asked in October last year if he would move up to featherweight in 2026, he said, "There is a young man who wants to be number one pound-for-pound, so I guess we just have to wait for him to come up," and "I'm starting to get interested myself," surprising the press with his eagerness to make the fight with Nakatani happen before he moves up a weight class.

Meanwhile, Nakatani also said in November of the same year, "Of course, I feel like we are getting closer to making it a reality."