I think I read earlier in the week that they are targeting Inoue for a date this year, and are offering upwards of $70 million. That’s insane! Great for him, no doubt, but I do wonder about the long term effects on the sport. If you pay a guy that kind of money, he has no incentive to fight again. After one or two Riyadh seasons, we might not have any stars left at all.
I doubt the 70 million claim unless its for 2 fights because that 70 would be astronomical for someone fighting at 122 for 1 fight (35 is too but somewhat more plausible considering Inoue is said to make 10 million+ per fight in Japan). I suspect it was a bit of hyperbole on Ohashi's part when he said a 10 billion yen fight in Saudi
Second if the 70 million claim is true then that didn't diminish Inoue's enthusiasm or fighting spirit in anyway because the Saudi approach would have already been known to him before the Tapales fight yet in the post fight press conference he said that he wanted to fight 3X in both 2024 & 2025 with a fight against Nery in May, MJ in September, & a 3rd opponent in December. If anything the money seems to make him want to fight more frequently as over the last few years he has been fighting 2X a year
Third how are guys who put on boring stinkers like Shakur & Haney making so much more than Beterbiev, Opetaia, & Matias who produce KO's & entertaining fights? Solely because they are Americans. Thanks to Saudi's now some of these guys will be getting paid what they are worth instead of the Shakur's & Haney's who are pushed down our throats as the "future of boxing" (more like the "future of tag you are it")
Inoue is not a social media drama queen, takes the best available fight 1 after another without any of this twitter drama, goes the extra mile to get the knockout. If anyone deserves 70 million in boxing today, its him
After the Tapales KO, what's his statement? I want to fight 3X in 2024 & you will all may have heard rumors about May, I can't confirm it yet but I will show you an even stronger Inoue in 2024. A week or so later he tweets:
Roadwork starts today. I will try to support Mr. Takuma and Mr. Hiroki
Takuma is his younger bro & Hiroki is his cousin, both of them are also boxers
He lets Ohashi do his job of negotiating for each fight while he focuses on his job, expect a date & location announced for the Nery fight soon enough
No A side, B side twitter drama unlike with Tank, Haney, Shakur, Ryan, & all these similarly overpaid Americans who do a lot more talking than fighting
