It took fifty years for there to be an undisputed bantamweight champion again at bantamweight.

It took about a month for the division to be left without a king again.

Last Friday, as reported at BoxingScene by Jake Donovan, Naoya Inoue made the expected announcement that he was heading toward his fourth weight class. In this case, there is no hedging, no holding onto a belt or two while dipping a toe in the water. Inoue is vacating his titles and pushing his chips all in.

The Japanese phenom adds to an already reignited weight class, though Jr. featherweight hasn’t ever been slow for long. Inoue is heading for one of the great war classes. Since its modern origin in the 1970s, 122 pounds has hosted an outsized collection of classics. It’s the division that gave us Wilfredo Gomez’s battles with Carlos Zarate and Lupe Pintor; Marco Antonio Barrera’s clashes with Kennedy McKinney, Junior Jones, and first with Erik Morales; the underground joy of Somsak Sithchatchawal-Mahyar Monshipour; and, those first three barnburners between Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez.

The options for Inoue suggest fresh additions to this fistic legacy could be on the way. His arrival comes on the heels of a resurgence of action in the last couple years and the possibility for Inoue to become undisputed champion in a second weight class. 

Jr. featherweight in 2023 is organized neatly with four major title belts shared between two combatants. Inoue would be met with serious resistance from either as well as several of the division’s contenders. Looking ahead at the field in front of him, here are five tantalizing foes for Inoue in his new weight class.

Johnriel Casimero (32-4, 22 KO, TBRB #9 at Jr. Featherweight)

This was a fight we missed out on due to COVID. They were scheduled for a bantamweight unification fight in the first half of 2020 but the world happened. Casimero is a three-division titlist with serious power and a gift for gab. The gift has been employed with venom in Inoue’s direction and it wouldn’t be surprising if the former titlist from the Phillipines burned a little watching Inoue walk over Paul Butler for a belt Casimero lost outside the ring. A good grudge match between power punchers is never a bad thing and if Inoue’s trip to Jr. featherweight settles old business, it would undoubtedly be entertaining. It’s not the only potential grudge match in the field as there is also…

Luis Nery (33-1, 25 KO, TBRB #7, Ring Magazine #6)

In 2018, Luis Nery’s second knockout win over Shinsuke Yamanaka got him barred from fighting in Japan by the Japanese Boxing Commission indefinitely. The first win was marred by a failed test for a banned substance, the second when Nery missed weight by several pounds. There was a time when it looked like Nery-Inoue was on its way to being a destination showdown. That didn’t materialize then and Mexico’s Nery has since won and lost a belt at Jr. featherweight. Nery has made clear he still wants a shot at the “Monster.” Inoue attempting to avenge a countryman who just happened to be one of the best bantamweights of the last twenty years is a story that writes itself. Another contender has thrown his name in the last week from the United States.

Ra’eese Aleem (20-0, 12 KO, TBRB #4, Ring Magazine #4)

Aleem has been quietly building toward a title shot with no luck yet. If he could get to Inoue before Inoue challenged for a title, Aleem would leap to the front of anyone’s line. A little more waiting, in a scenario where Inoue won a title first, could mean a chance to win his first title from one of the world’s best. At 32, Aleem doesn’t have forever but he’d offer a fundamentally sound, physically strong challenge that would give us an idea of how Inoue handles an escalation in mass.

Being fair to all of these men and other solid contenders in the class like Marlon Tapales, Zolani Tete, and Azat Hovhannisyan, the two options that would turn the most heads right now are the ones with belts in tow.

Murodjon Akhmadaliev (11-0, 8 KO, IBF/WBA, TBRB/Ring Magazine #2)

Inoue won his first two belts, at Jr. flyweight and Jr. bantamweight, in his sixth and eighth professional starts. Uzbekistan’s Akhmadaliev has competed in just one weight class so far but he wrested two straps from Daniel Roman in just his eighth pro start. That tightly contested affair was followed by three defenses including solid knockouts of veterans Ryosuke Iwasa and Ronny Rios. A 2015 World Amateur silver medalist and 2016 Olympic Bronze Medalist, Akhmadaliev-Inoue would be an almost guaranteed war for as long as it lasted. Inoue annihilated the bulk of the field in his 9-0 run at bantamweight. What would happen if a bigger man with power was still there after Inoue landed his bombs? Akhmadaliev might get us that answer. 

Injuries and mandatory obligations could make an Akhmadaliev fight hard to make immediately, but it’s easily one of the best fights anyone could hope for right now at Jr. featherweight.

It’s probably not the very best though.

Stephen Fulton (21-0, 8 KO, WBC/WBO, TBRB/Ring Magazine #1)

A piece of news in the last week raised eyebrows on social media. It was assumed Philadelphia’s “Cool Boy” was headed to featherweight for a rematch with Brandon Figueroa for an interim WBC strap in the class. ESPN’s Salvador Rodriguez reported Figueroa will instead face former titlist Mark Magsayo in his next fight. 

That leaves two big names with an empty dance card. Can fight fans get their hopes up? 

Inoue-Fulton feels like it could be a special clash of styles and talents, something akin to Julio Cesar Chavez-Meldrick Taylor…or Chavez-Pernell Whitaker. Inoue’s power at bantamweight was so sensational it’s easy to see it tracking up another four pounds and Inoue’s combination of speed, skill, and power is a different assignment than Fulton foes like Roman, Angelo Leo, and Figueroa. 

Conversely, Fulton’s skill set, defense, ability to fight inside and at range, and advantages in height and length, would test Inoue both physically and mentally. Inoue is already a likely lock for the Hall of Fame but along the way he missed some big names at Jr. bantamweight in the foursome of Roman Gonzalez, Juan Francisco Estrada, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, and Carlos Cuadras. Nonito Donaire remained a dangerous opponent at bantamweight but Inoue still doesn’t have the sort of prime for prime challenge a Fulton would present. 

A fight between Inoue and Fulton is the sort of right on time showdown of proven, undefeated champions boxing can never get enough of. It might be too much to hope for right out of the gate for Inoue but it’s the sort of challenge the greats chase.

Naoya Inoue is already great enough but how great will be further defined at Jr. featherweight. Any of the names above would add to that picture, but one name stands out from the crowd.

Cross those fingers. It does sort of feel like the boxing gods owe us one.        

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, a member of the International Boxing Research Organization, and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com