Gervonta vs. Inoue to Happen? Arum's Opinion

Bob Arum, the founder and head of Top Rank, evaluated the likelihood of a potential mega-fight between the undisputed super bantamweight champion (up to 55.3 kg) Naoya Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs) and the WBA lightweight champion (up to 61.2 kg) Gervonta Davis (30-0, 28 KOs).

Arum categorically dismissed any chance of Inoue facing Tank and explained that it would be unfair to force Naoya to fight at lightweight, as he is already at a disadvantage in his current division due to his size.

"In his last few fights, Inoue has been fighting super bantamweight guys (122 pounds or 55.338 kg), and he has always been the smaller guy. Even when he moves up to featherweight (126 pounds or 57.12 kg), which everyone is talking about, he will be significantly smaller than the fighters he will be facing. Moving up to lightweight (135 pounds or 61.23 kg) would be unfair.

Is a fight between Gervonta Davis and Inoue possible? In reality, no. The size difference is enormous," said Arum on the Cigar Talk podcast.

The fight between Gervonta Davis and Naoya Inoue is a dream of Turki Al Ash-Sheikh, the head of the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia, who is trying to organize bouts for the undisputed champion outside of Japan.

"My dream fights are Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua, Canelo vs. Terence Crawford, David Benavidez vs. Artur Beterbiev or Dmitry Bivol, and Gervonta Davis, if he wises up, against Naoya Inoue.

These are the fights I like. If Inoue and Tank reach the right weight and give us the right offer, we can make that fight happen. But there are important things. Inoue is a great fighter, don't keep him fighting only in Japan, let the world see him.

Bring him to us, have him fight in Saudi Arabia, America, London, we are ready to talk about it. He is a great fighter, and it would be unfortunate if he retired in a few years, with 99 percent of his fights taking place in Japan," said Turki.

It should be noted that the World Boxing Association (WBA) has mandated Inoue to fight the mandatory challenger from Uzbekistan, Murodjon Akhmadaliev (12-1, 9 KOs). However, Naoya's promoter Bob Arum stated that "nobody knows Akhmadaliev," hence they are not interested in that fight.

Arum mentioned two fights that the Japanese boxer will have before the end of the year – against Irishman TJ Doheny (26-4, 20 KOs) in September and Australian Sam Goodman (18-0, 8 KOs) in December.

Naoya Inoue last fought in May against Mexican Luis Nery (35-2, 27 KOs), successfully defending his undisputed champion title with a sixth-round technical knockout.