MURODJON AKHMADALIEV fully agrees that Naoya Inoue is a great fighter but disagrees that the Japanese star is the best super-bantamweight in the world.
Inoue currently holds all four belts at 122lbs and recently defended his undisputed title against TJ Doheny. As expected Inoue won and inside the distance. Akhmadaliev, a former unified world champion, lost his titles to Marlon Tapales in April 2023, and according to the 29-year-old, a rematch between himself and the Filipino should have happened. Instead Tapales went on to put up a strong showing in his defeat to Inoue last December.
“Tapales had to rematch me right after the fight, they [WBA] had mandated that he had to rematch me and they [Tapales] got the exception to fight for the undisputed with Naoya,” Akhmadaliev explained to Boxing News.
“I stepped aside. I understand they wanted the huge fight, it’s okay. They had a good fight. Naoya won the fight. The winner of that fight was supposed to fight me. But even after that when the WBA announced me as the mandatory official contender and give us terms to agree to terms they [Inoue] declined the fight and they applied for exception. Okay, you did exception, what’s next, what’s going on? Why doesn’t he want to fight me?”
Inoue’s own exception granted him the opportunity to defend his belts against Doheny, a less dangerous challenge than Akhmadaliev, who says he knows why Inoue and his team don’t want to face him.
“I can box, I can punch, I can fight, I can wrestle. I can do whatever it is. I’m a strong guy, I have a lot of skills and they know it, his team knows it and they don’t wanna risk it. They’re afraid they’re gonna lose,” he said.
“People are mentioning my name all the time is because I deserve it. They know if there’s someone who can give him a fight and have a chance of beating him it’s me.”