Day 1 of DAZN News' 10 New Year’s Resolutions for boxing: To feed Naoya ‘The Monster’ Inoue with these two mega fights

Naoya Inoue fought like a man possessed in 2025, recording four defenses of his undisputed super bantamweight crown including the unanimous decision over Alan Picasso on December 27 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and live on DAZN.

Before and after that victory, the pound-for-pound sensation spoke of two opponents that brings us to DAZN News’ first New Year’s Resolution for boxing in 2026:

To Feed ‘The Monster’ with two mega fights

Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing

Prior to even outpointing Picasso in dominant fashion, Inoue sat down with fellow Japanese fighter Junto Nakatani for Ring Magazine.

They each took turns explaining how big their collision would be for Japanese boxing and the world of sweet science, overall.

“The fact that Nakatani and I overlap in the same era and that we’re moving toward that kind of fight, for Japanese boxing it creates an excitement we haven’t seen before,” Inoue told The Ring.

Added Nakatani: “Moving toward a fight like this has an impact not only on me personally, but on the boxing world as a whole.”

On the same card that had Inoue paint a messy picture of Picasso, Nakatani, in his first taste at super bantamweight, produced a hard-fought unanimous decision against Sebastian Hernadez in the co-main event.

His right eye swollen shut from 12 action-packed rounds with Hernandez, Nakatani restated to DAZN that he moved up in weight “to aim for the world champion” Inoue.

Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing

Pairing Inoue (32-0, 27 KOs) against Nakatani (32-0, 24 KOs) would be the biggest fight in Japanese boxing history, perhaps with a sold-out Tokyo Dome serving as the best host.

Especially if successful in dominating fashion in such a bout, Inoue should receive his next challenge later in the year in the form of another undefeated, pound-for-pound phenom in Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez.

After outclassing Picasso, Inoue entertained the idea of Rodriguez, the unified WBA, WBC and WBO super flyweight world champion, moving up two divisions to challenge for his crown.

Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing

“Yeah, when he’s ready and if he can fight at super bantamweight class and if our timing is perfect with each other,” Inoue told DAZN, “yeah, I would love to wait for him to challenge me.”

Rodriguez then took to his X account and reposted his trainer Robert Garcia telling Ring Magazine “We’ll see him soon” in response.

Just as Terence Crawford did in moving two weight classes up to dethrone super middleweight king Canelo Alvarez in September, Rodriguez (23-0, 16 KOs) making the climb up two divisions to face Inoue would put a must-see Fight of the Year on display for the boxing world to consume.

Standing an inch taller with roughly a half-inch of reach advantage, Inoue, 32, has similar dimensions to Rodriguez who turns 26 later this month.

Both men seemingly have every punch at their disposal with ultra deep bags to draw from, pristine angles and explosive power.

The fact that Rodriguez is a southpaw with elite footwork — arguably the best in boxing today — makes a potential ‘The Monster’-‘Bam’ billing mouthwatering for fight fans in 2026, just like Inoue vs. Nakatani before it.

Can either Nakatani or Rodriguez tame 'The Monster?' Hopefully, that question is answered in the New Year.