Terence Crawford has made it clear who he wants undisputed super-bantamweight king Naoya Inoue to go up against in his next outing.
Inoue captured the undisputed 122lb crown back in 2023 with back-to-back knockout wins over unified champions Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales, and since then ‘The Monster’ has gone on to make a remarkable seven defences of all four of those world titles.
The most recent of those victories was his best to date, as he outpointed countryman and fellow pound-for-pound star Junto Nakatani, stopping ‘Big Bang’ from joining him in the elite club of Japanese four-division world champions; which currently consists of Kazuto Ioka, Kosei Tanaka and himself.
Inoue is now set to be targeting a return to action in spring 2027; against either Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez or a featherweight world champion, and on his X account, Crawford has had his say.
He has urged Inoue to face ‘Bam’, listing the potential undisputed super-bantamweight title showdown as the first fight amongst a host of other possible match-ups that ‘Bud’ is keen to see.
Whilst Inoue has threatened to move on from Rodriguez if he cannot be fit for the spring, it seems as though Rodriguez, who holds the WBA bantamweight world title, will first fight in a 118lb title unification against WBO titleholder Christian Medina before the end of the year.
Then, a decision will be made as to whether the Texan is happy to venture up to super-bantamweight or if Inoue should finally make his long-awaited move into the featherweight division for his March or April outing.
