Naoya Inoue’s next fight likely will take place in September or October in Las Vegas.

Bob Arum, Inoue’s co-promoter, informed BoxingScene.com that Inoue’s handlers in Japan expect to bring the unbeaten bantamweight star to the United States sometime in September. That would clear the way for Inoue to make his debut in Las Vegas, where the IBF/WBA 118-pound champion was supposed to battle WBO champ Johnriel Casimero in a title unification fight April 25 at Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Arum added that rescheduling the Casimero match is “certainly possible” for what would be Inoue’s first fight since signing a co-promotional deal with Arum’s Top Rank Inc.

“We expect Inoue over here in September,” Arum said. “Talking to [Hideyuki] Ohashi, his manager, and [Akihiko] Honda, his [other] promoter, they tell us that they’ll have him over in the United States in September. So, we’re looking to put him in a fight in September or October. And hopefully, by that time we’ll be able to do fights with limited audiences because his great value in the United States is that he has all of these Japanese high rollers that will come to his fights.

“Whether they live in the United States or they come from Japan, they follow him. So, we would do a fight with Inoue for maybe 2,000 or 2,500 people in a 15,000-seat arena, so we can get spacing, give them meals. As hard as we’ve worked on this first phase, that’s what I’ve directed my guys to start working on for the second phase, which is fights with limited audiences.”

ESPN will televise Inoue’s next bout.

The Philippines’ Casimero remained in Las Vegas to train once the COVID-19 pandemic brought boxing to a standstill in the middle of March. Casimero and his team want to reschedule his showdown with Inoue next.

“That is certainly possible,” Arum said. “That’s still out there. There’s no question about it.”

The 27-year-old Inoue (19-0, 16 KOs) would be favored versus Casimero (29-4, 20 KOs), but Casimero impressively upset Zolani Tete (28-4, 21 KOs) to win the WBO bantamweight championship in his last fight, November 30 in Birmingham, England.

The former IBF flyweight and IBF/WBO light flyweight champion sent South Africa’s Tete to the canvas twice in the third round. Referee Steve Gray stopped their scheduled 12-round bout at 2:14 of the third round.

Inoue, a three-weight world champion, is commonly considered one of the top five boxers, pound-for-pound, in the sport. 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.