Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani can provide the perfect counter to Joshua vs Paul

It’s very possible that Anthony Joshua’s frustrating fight, or approach to one, with YouTuber-turned-boxer Anthony Joshua has left a sour taste in your mouth. Luckily, ’tis the season for mulled wine, hot chocolate and Baileys, but if you don’t trust the palate-cleansing effectiveness of these festive fluids, don’t despair. The day after Boxing Day is boxing day, as two of the best fighters on the planet take to the ring on the same card.

Enter Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani, the Japanese duo looking to deliver their own duel in 2026, but with respective tests awaiting them on December 27.

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That night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Inoue will defend his undisputed super bantamweight titles against Alan Picasso (please exercise restraint by avoiding any artist-related puns in this article). In the previous fight, Junto Nakatani made his debut in the same division, against Sebastian Hernández Reyes.

All four fighters are undefeated. According to the Sports Indy Rankings, Inoue is the second best boxer alive and Nakatani floats at No. 8. Although their next opponents don’t have the profile and pedigree of Inoue and Nakatani (who left his unified bantamweight belts to move up a division here), they are undefeated and respectable foes.

Sure, Picasso (who also goes by his middle name, David) and Reyes are underdogs this weekend, but obviously not to the extent that Paul was against “AJ” – a former heavyweight champion of the world. By the way, neither will use the influencer tactic of moving away (around a larger ring than usual) and diving onto their opponent’s legs to buy time and avoid damage. Picasso and Reyes will come to fight, for better or for worse. In fact, they will come to win.

Yet the same fate as Paul’s could befall them: the kind of punitive stoppage for, say, breaking their jaw in two places. But Picasso and Reyes will commit to action anyway, and they will accept that this may be the price of fame. This is certainly the price of honor.

In this way, Saturday’s event will be a welcome counter-blow to last Friday’s commercial and sporting farce. This is a night for traditionalists, but please come, everyone. If Joshua vs. Paul appealed to something in you, even just for its spectacle, then stick around for some more of that and a plot a more real boxing.

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Overall, this event should be appreciated for showcasing two of the best fighters in the sport. But we cannot, in good conscience, rave about these things without addressing the downsides – and there are downsides.

First, there is the political element, and it goes beyond the “boxing politics” of Joshua’s six-round dismissal of Paul. This is a global policy issue. Saudi Arabia can be accused of using the event – ​​the latest in a long line of high-profile boxing spectacles over the past two years – as a tool of sportswashing, as the Gulf state continues to try to distract from its poor human rights record.

Second, and much less important, there is the risk of presenting Inoue and Nakatani’s fights as stepping stones to their own much-desired showdown.

Indeed, a clash between 32-year-old Inoue (undisputed two-weight king and four-weight champion) and 27-year-old Nakatani (three-weight champion) is enticing.

Inoue has long been recognized as one of the best boxers in the world, otherwise – for a time – THE better, but detractors have pointed out the little destroyer’s lack of big-name adversaries. This is not due to any avoidance on his part, but rather because the lower weight classes are home to fewer stars. Yet in Nakatani he could find an adversary at the peak of danger and marketability.

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Yet we’ve been here before: “If A beats X and B beats Y, then A and B can then have their highly anticipated fight.” » This strategy is clearly wrong, such is the chaos of boxing.

We received such proof two years ago to the day when Joshua and Deontay Wilder shared a card in the same city that will host Saturday’s fights. Joshua dismantled Otto Wallin, but the destruction was still deflated because – 30 minutes earlier – Wilder had been beaten by Joseph Parker for 12 rounds. With that, Joshua vs. Wilder escaped contact distance – perhaps forever.

Likewise, last May, a huge rematch between Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia fell apart when they boxed in the same ring but produced different results; Haney, although poor, passed Jose Ramirez, only for Garcia to be dropped and outscored by Rolly Romero in an upset loss.

So here we are again. And even though Inoue would be the A face in a match against Nakatani, and as formidable as the “Monster” is, there is reason to worry about him this weekend. In two of his last five fights, Inoue has been dropped, showing a vulnerability that could derail the Saudi’s machinations to pair him with Nakatani.

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Certainly, it is Nakatani’s opponent on Saturday who has a knockout rate of 90 percent (18 successes out of 20 victories). In contrast, Picasso enters his fight against Inoue with 17 KOs from 32 wins. It could be Nakatani making a mistake here, especially since he finds himself at a new weight – three divisions above the class in which he won his first world title.

And that could also factor into a potential matchup with Inoue. The Monster has been at super bantamweight for two and a half years now, having already conquered two of the same divisions as Nakatani. Yet Inoue’s first world title came at light flyweight, where he was smaller than Nakatani ever was. In this way, perhaps Nakatani will become a super bantamweight more easily than his compatriot.

As in the case of Joshua versus Paul, many questions remain unanswered. But even if Saudi involvement makes Inoue vs. Nakatani a problematic saga, many fans will see it as a more acceptable version of pugilism.