Undisputed champ Inoue to fight Nery in May: report

Japan’s Naoya Inoue has agreed to defend his undisputed super bantamweight championship in May in Tokyo against former world champion Luis Nery, U.S. sports network ESPN reported Monday night.

The 30-year-old Inoue needed just two fights at super bantamweight to seize the world championships of boxing’s four top sanctioning bodies. He won the WBC and WBO titles in a July technical knockout before taking the other two in December by knockout.

On Friday, Inoue, who is 26-0 with 23 knockouts as a pro, became the first Japanese boxer to be named fighter of the year by the prestigious Ring Magazine.

In December 2022, Inoue wrapped up all four bantamweight world titles before moving up in weight to super bantamweight, where he became boxing’s second four-belt champion in two different weight classes.

The 29-year-old Mexican Nery, who is the WBC’s top-ranked contender, lost his bantamweight title in Japan when he failed to make weight against Japanese contender Shinsuke Yamanaka.