Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Unified super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (28-0, 25 KOs) weighed 121.8 pounds, while his substitute challenger Ye Joon Kim (21-2-2, 13 KOs) weighed 121.7 pounds for their main card this Friday the 24th. of January. at the Ariake Arena, Koto-Ku, in Tokyo, Japan.
(Credit: Naoka Fakuda)
Grim weighing
The weigh-in had a funeral feel to it, as no one smiled and the wrestlers had somber expressions on their faces. Inoue was scheduled to defend against Sam Goodman, but suffered an injury in camp and had to be replaced by Kim.
For fans outside of Australia, Kim and Goodman are interchangeable. No difference. They are both light punchers and pose no threat to beating Inoue, and are not popular fighters. It’s good that a replacement opponent could be found so quickly. It’s a shame that a better opponent could have been found to make it interesting.
Who is Kim?
Not much is known about Kim because he has been fighting lesser opponents for his entire 13-year professional career. He hasn’t done anything to qualify for a title shot, even as a replacement opponent.
It’s strange how Team Inoue selected him instead of someone fans have heard of and who could potentially give Naoya a run for his money. That may not be what they would have wanted because it would have been risky for Inoue to fight someone with two weeks of preparation for his style.
Friday’s Inoue-Kim event will air on ESPN+ at 4:15 a.m. ET/1:15 a.m. PT. Die-hard boxing fans in the US will probably get up early to watch the event, but that’s about it.
Inoue, 31, doesn’t have anyone boxing fans have been excited to see since his fight against Stephen Fulton in 2023. That fight made a lot of people in the US eager to see it. Naoya has since defeated these fighters:
– TJ Doheny
– Luis Nery
– Marlon Tapales
