Japan’s unbeaten Naoya Inoue will struggle in Las Vegas for the primary time in 4 years when he takes on American Ramon Cardenas in Could, promoters High Rank mentioned Thursday.

The 31-year-old, often known as “Monster,” will defend his undisputed tremendous bantamweight world titles in his first struggle exterior of Japan since 2021.

Inoue’s final bout was a fourth-round knockout of South Korea’s Kim Ye-joon in Tokyo in January, which noticed the Japanese fighter take his report to 29-0 with 26 KOs.

The 29-year-old Cardenas has a 26-1 report, successful 14 by KO.

His most up-to-date struggle was a unanimous determination over Mexico’s Bryan Acosta final month.

Inoue has fought eight instances in Japan since his final abroad bout, a KO in opposition to Michael Dasmarinas in Las Vegas in June 2021.

He’s additionally anticipated to struggle in Saudi Arabia later this yr after signing a sponsorship cope with Riyadh Season.

Inoue mentioned he was mentally “exhausted” after beating Kim in a struggle that needed to be reorganized twice.

Inoue was initially scheduled to face Sam Goodman in December, however the struggle was postponed when the Australian suffered a lower above his eye in coaching.

Goodman was then pressured to withdraw after reopening the lower, with Kim being parachuted in as a last-minute substitute.