Naoya Inoue to headline Riyadh’s ‘Night of the Samurai’

RIYADH: Turki Alalshikh, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, has announced that Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue (31-0, 27 KOs) will defend his WBC super-bantamweight title against Mexico’s Alan Picasso Romero (32-0-1, 17 KOs) on Dec. 27.

The fight will headline Riyadh Season’s “Ring V: Night of the Samurai” at the Mohammed Abdo Arena, according to reports on Thursday.

This marks Inoue’s first fight in Saudi Arabia, following his dominant title defense last weekend against Murodjon Akhmadaliev.

Ring Magazine has ranked Inoue third in boxing’s pound-for-pound ratings, with Terence Crawford first and Oleksandr Usyk second.

The card includes Junto Nakatani (31‑0, 24 KOs), the unified bantamweight champion, who will make his super‑bantamweight debut against Mexico’s Sebastian Hernandez Reyes (20‑0, 18 KOs), a 24‑year‑old rising star.

The card will be broadcast live worldwide on DAZN and Lemino in Japan.