Naoya Inoue vs. Ye Joon Kim

Twenty-fourth of January in Kōtō-ku. Inoue will defend the IBF and WBA super bantamweight titles each for a third time, and the WBO and WBC titles for a fourth each. YJK - a fortnight's notice substitute for IBF & WBO mandatory contender Sam Goodman after eye injuries once again forced the undefeated Aussie to withdraw - is currently not, and to my knowledge has never been, ranked top 15 by any major org.

A stoppage victory here would place the champion just one shy of reaching the 90% threshold for the first time since his rookie year. He's currently at 89.29% and the go-ahead with 26 of 29 wins by KO would be 89.65%.

If you're looking for reasons to be guardedly optimistic about the South Korean's chances - he is a natural super bantam / feather (not that such was really much help to Fulton, or Nery, or Doheny), and can switch-hit (as far as I can work out, the logic behind the bizarre nickname "Pacquiweather" seems to be 1) that he's from Asia, can fight southpaw, and sometimes fights aggressively while he 2) occasionally uses a shoulder roll ) - and, to date in his pro career, has never been stopped or indeed even dropped.

Even grasping at those straws, however, it's difficult to see aught but a swift & violent summary execution in the ring this coming Friday.

 

Inoue vs. Terence John Doheny:

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Kim vs. Robert Darnell Tompkins Diezel:

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Lemino Boxing in Japan will have full show coverage from 1:20pm local time in Tokyo / 6:20am GMT / 1:20am EST. ESPN+ will carry only the co-main (Sasaki vs. Sakai) and main event, from 4:15pm local / 9:15am GMT / 4:15am EST

 

Erm...careful where you click, guys. Once that happens I don't think even the mods can fix it.

 

DraftKings has a delicious -110 line on Rounds 1-3.

Championship rounds are +2500