Inoue stays as super-bantam champ with devastating KO

Goading boxing superstar Naoya Inoue - the fighter they call 'The Monster' - has proved to be the wrong move.

The unbeaten Japanese fighter was invited to take a shot by overmatched South Korean opponent Ye Joon Kim, and Inoue responded with a devastating right hand in a fourth-round knockout in Tokyo on Friday to remain undisputed super bantamweight champion of the world.

Kim fell to his knees and couldn't beat the count - and it must have made for conflicting viewing for Australian Sam Goodman, who would have had the unenviable task of beating Inoue in this fight until he was derailed by a bad cut in training.

Kim only got his chance against the man who's now taken his record to 29-0 with 26 KOs because of challenger Goodman's misfortune just before their scheduled fight on Christmas Eve.

Goodman suffered the injury in sparring and had to pull out, and then after the date was rescheduled, had to withdraw again when the cut reopened.

This was Inoue's third successful defence of his super bantamweight titles and now he's headed to the United States, with his promoter wanting Americans to cherish him as much as they do Japanese baseball icon, Shohei Ohtani.

Bob Arum, Inoue's promoter at Top Rank, confirmed afterwards that Inoue's next fight will be in Las Vegas, where he had his last fight outside Japan when he beat Michael Dasmarinas in June 2021.

Nearly four years on, Inoue will arrive as a pound-for-pound superstar who is a four-division world champion ? in light flyweight, super flyweight, bantamweight and now super bantamweight.

Whetting the appetite, Arum evoked comparisons with Ohtani, the headline act for the defending World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"I observed that the great country of Japan has given Ohtani to Los Angeles," Arum said.

"And at least for one fight, the great country of Japan will give the great Inoue to the city of Las Vegas this spring."