Naoya Inoue wants Paul Butler fight in bid to unify world bantamweight titles

Naoya Inoue has said he is ready to fight the British boxer Paul Butler “any time and anywhere” in his quest to claim a fourth bantamweight title and become the undisputed world champion.

Inoue made history this month when he beat the Philippines’ Nonito Donaire in a second-round technical knockout to became the first Japanese boxer to hold a world title from three different sanctioning bodies in a single weight division. The unbeaten Japanese fighter said his sights were now on winning 33-year-old Butler’s WBO belt to complete the collection.

“My aim this year it to win that fourth belt,” Inoue said in Tokyo on Monday, three weeks after he stopped Donaire in a hopelessly one-sided world title unification bout at Saitama Super Arena.

Speaking moments after he had seized Donaire’s WBC belt with a flurry of punches midway through the second round, Inoue said he had never seen Butler fight. On Monday, though, he said he had since watched a video of highlights from the British boxer’s career.

“My gym is still in negotiations over the Butler fight, and things are moving in the right direction, although I don’t think the details have been worked out,” Inoue said. “I haven’t watched his bouts in their entirety, but I can see he is a talented and aggressive boxer.”

Although all but four of Inoue’s 23 victories have come in Japan, the 29-year-old said the venue for his possible meeting with Butler was unimportant. “I don’t have a preference,” he said. “I don’t care if we fight in Japan, the US or the UK … I just want to fight him, no matter where it is.”

Inoue, nicknamed the Monster, then held out the tantalising prospect of a dramatic debut in a higher weight division. “If I can unify the four bantamweight titles this year, I