IBF, WBC, and WBO super bantamweight champion Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue will be defending substitute opponent Ye Joon Kim (21-2-2, 13 KOs) in place of his injured mandatory Sam Goodman on January 24th at the Ariake Arena, Koto-Ku in Tokyo, Japan.
Inoue’s management found the 32-year-old South Korean Ye Joon Kim and inserted him as the replacement for Naoya to defend his three belts in 13 days on January 24th. Goodman (19-0, 8 KOs) pulled out of his fight against Inoue due to a reoccurrence of an eye injury. Inoue is expected to reschedule against Goodman at a later date in 2025.
Rocky Story?
Fans’ one issue, besides never having heard of Kim before, is how he can be allowed to fight for Inoue’s three world titles at super bantamweight when he’s unranked in the top 15 by any of the four sanctioning bodies. Other than that, Yoon Kim is just about as good an option as Naoya’s unpopular original choice, Sam Goodman.
Inoue’s team has made a ‘Rocky’- type selection, choosing an unranked fighter few people have ever heard of and putting him in the spotlight to challenge for three world titles. It would be more palatable if this were a non-world title fight with none of Inoue’s belts at stake. Team ‘Monster’ Inoue has chosen a ham & egger as his replacement. That’s great for Kim and Naoya but lousy for the fans.
Allowing a non-contender to fight for three world titles is off-putting and utterly unfair to the fans and the top 15 contenders who have been waiting for their shot at the world title against the Japanese star.
Boxing fans were not interested in seeing Inoue defend against Goodman (19-0, 8 KOs), seeing that as a typical mismatch for the Japanese star. The Aussie Goodman is a finesse fighter with no power and would have been food for Naoya.
However, Goodman looks like a real talent compared to the replacement opponent, Ye Joon Kim, who lost two years ago to journeyman Sam Diezel (15-10, 4 KOS0 by an eight-round majority decision on April 15, 2023.
Ye Joon Kim’s Last Six Opponents:
Rakesh Lohchab
John Basan
Sam Diezel
Ruben Montoya Ramirez
Ryo Kosaka
Anocha Phuangkaew
Those records of those fighters are just plain awful, filled with losses against obscure fighters. Again, how in the world is Naoya Inoue being allowed to defend against Ye Joon Kim rather than a credible contender?
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