There are no realistic plans in 2025 for a dream matchup between Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani.

Hideyuki Ohashi, Inoue’s promoter, provided a realistic 2025 schedule for his company’s star client. The plan is for Inoue (28-0, 25 KOs), The Ring and undisputed junior featherweight champion, to fight three times in the new year.

However, his rescheduled championship defense against Australia’s Sam Goodman (19-0, 8 KOs) now comes with a ripple effect.

"There won't be four fights next year,” Ohashi confirmed to reporters during a press conference Thursday in Japan. "[Next] December isn't scheduled because it wasn't originally scheduled.

“There's no Nakatani either. It's different from the plan that's been [suggested in the media].”

Inoue-Goodman was due to take place on Dec. 24 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. The event as a whole was pushed back by exactly one month when Goodman, The Ring No. 3 junior featherweight, suffered a horrific cut over his left eye during a final sparring session.

Their bout will now take place on Jan. 24 at the same venue. With a win, Inoue will then headline a Las Vegas show next spring and then fight on a Riyadh Season show in Saudi Arabia sometime in the fall.

That same schedule originally had Inoue fighting in April to begin his 2025 campaign. The one month shift for his title defense against Goodman now leaves an open-ended timeframe for his U.S. return.

Nakatani (29-0, 22 KOs) is The Ring No. 1 bantamweight—where he holds the WBC title—and No. 9 pound-for-pound. The 26-year-old Japanese southpaw from Sagamihara, Kanagawa has also won titles at flyweight and junior bantamweight.

Given his 5’8” frame, a move to junior featherweight is plausible. A title win there would see Nakatani join Inoue and Kazuto Ioka (31-3-1, 16 KOs) as the nation’s only male boxers to win major belts in four weight divisions.

A mouthwatering clash with Inoue—at the moment for The Ring and undisputed championship—is viewed as the biggest all-Japanese fight ever. As such, it will not be rushed by Ohashi Promotions, who believes 2026 is a far more realistic time frame for such a fight if Inoue doesn’t first move up to featherweight.