A deal for pound-for-pound star Naoya Inoue to defend his undisputed junior-featherweight titles against Murodjon Akhmadaliev later this year has been signed.

Inoue, The Ring's No. 2 P4P fighter, holds the Ring Magazine, WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF 122-pound belts, and is in action on Sunday, May 4 against Mexican Ramon Cardenas.

Assuming Inoue (29-0, 26 KOs), 32, comes through that fight, which takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, he will go on to fight Akhmadaliev, likely on September 14 in Tokyo, Japan.

Akhamdaliev's promoter Eddie Hearn posted on X: "Done deal, finally! Uzbek Power vs The Monster. Best fight in the division."

Akhmadaliev (13-1, 10 KOs) is The Ring's No. 2 junior-featherweight contender and is a former unified champion in the division.

He beat Daniel Roman by split decision in January 2020 to claim the WBA and IBF titles, but dropped them four fights later to Filipino Marlon Tapales.

Inoue, The Ring, WBC and WBO champ at the time, beat Tapales by 10th-round knockout to earn undisputed status in December 2023.

Since then, Inoue has picked up three consecutive stoppage victories over Luis Nery, TJ Doheny and Kim Ye-joon.

Akhmadaliev, on the other hand, has recovered from his defeat to Tapales by knocking out both Kevin Gonzalez and Ricardo Espinoza Franco in nondescript bouts.

Inoue recently told The Ring that after his fight with Cardenas this weekend, he would be pursuing clashes with Akhmadaliev, Englishman Nick Ball and compatriot Junto Nakatani, who is also a pound-for-pound star.

“I don't know if I will make it back to being the No. 1 pound for pound fighter in the world in this fight, but I've got fight dates in September, December and next year and hope to get Murodjon Akhmadaliev, Nick Ball, and Junto Nakatani to bring me up to No. 1,” he said.

"Cardenas is a beautiful fighter. He's an all-around good fighter, but for me, it's easy. No matter how he comes out, I think I have the advantage … I have nothing more than pure confidence for this fight.”