The Ring will be hosting their fifth overall event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which will feature Naoya Inoue as the headliner and build around an event based on Japanese culture that has been dubbed as the “Night of the Samurai” and see a range of promotions, including Japanese rivals Teiken and Ohashi Promotions, collaborate together for this show. The card will take place on December 7 at the Mohammed Abdo Arena.
Japanese star Naoya Inoue (31-0, 27 KO’s) will further make his first appearance at a The Ring event on a Turki Alalshikh-sponsored card, setting up a potential pathway for the undisputed super bantamweight (122 lbs) champion to compete on future The Ring or Riyadh Season cards .
Facing Inoue for all his titles will be Mexican challenger David Picasso (32-0-1, 17 KO’s) who had been outlined as a potential opponent for the Japanese fighter earlier this year.
Featured in the co-main event will be feature the second-biggest star of Japan, Junto Nakatani (31-0, 24 KO’s) who will be moving up to 122 lbs to fight another Mexican challenger in Sebastian Hernandez Reyes (20-0, 18 KO’s) ― after vacating his WBC and IBF bantamweight (118 lbs) titles this past August.
Further well-known Japanese fighters to compete on The Ring card will be former unified flyweight (112 lbs) champion Kenshiro Teraji (25-2, 16 KO’s) who will also be facing a Mexican fighter in IBF champion Willibaldo Garcia (23-6-2, 13 KO’s).
Additionally, Japanese prospect Hayato Tsutsumi (8-0, 5 KO’s) is set to prove he can become a legitimate world title contender as he faces British former world champion James “Jazza” Dickens (36-5, 15 KO’s).
A possible future match-up between Inoue and Nakatani appears closer in sight as the two Japanese pound-for-pound fighters are set to fight together on the same card for the first time while competing in the same weight class, though no confirmation of a deal or even negotations between the two parties have yet been confirmed.
