On August 19, “The Monster” appeared at Korakuen Hall, widely regarded as the mecca of Japanese boxing. Since defeating Junto Nakatani by decision at the Tokyo Dome on May 2, Inoue has yet to officially announce his next fight. Perhaps because of that, the 32-year-old looked relaxed as he sat down with The Ring and spoke at length about his past, present and future.

Yeah, I think the mental side of it is probably the biggest thing. There have been times when I've taken this much time off before. But when I have a fight already lined up, even if I'm taking time off, it's always somewhere in the back of my mind. I'm always thinking about the next fight to some degree. Right now, I don't have that at all, so it's a completely different feeling.”

“I think this is another important period for me. If I really wanted to, I could fight in October or November. But I've been looking at the fight at the Tokyo Dome against Nakatani, which had been planned for two years. So I feel like this is an important time for me to take a little bit of a mental break as well.”

“If you look at my career, other than the four title challenges I've had during my four-division championship run, if you ask me whether there were fights that I absolutely had to make, I'd say, ‘Well, I don't know.’ So the Bam fight isn't a fight that I absolutely have to make, either. That being said, if I'm going to make the most of the time I have left at super bantamweight, I think Bam is really the only choice.”

“My stance is pretty much the same. And if the Bam fight doesn't happen, I'm also thinking about moving up to featherweight. I don't want to spend the last two or three years of my career simply playing it safe. I want to move up another division and continue challenging myself.”

“I watched it. I watched the full fight, not just the highlights. I did get the impression that, physically, things weren't quite the same for him as they had been before. But he still managed to finish the fight with a knockout. His strength isn't really about physical power. He has the ability to punch through you with pinpoint accuracy. For example, even if I were fighting at super featherweight or lightweight, I think I'd still be able to hurt an opponent with a punch they didn't see coming. I think it's the same with Bam. If he had tried to rely on physical strength in that fight, I don't think he would have produced that kind of knockout. I saw that ability in him to land punches from blind spots and take advantage of openings in his opponent.”

“Yeah, I think that's the key to being able to stop people as you move up in weight. I've moved up from light flyweight myself, so physically, I don't think Bam and I are actually that different. If we fight, I think it would be a very interesting fight.”

“Absolutely. Ever since people started talking about this fight, there have been a lot of people saying that I'd have a huge advantage against Bam, that the difference between the weight classes and our physical size would be too much. But personally, I don't think the gap is that big.”

“Making weight isn't difficult for me. Super bantamweight is still my natural weight class.”

“Exactly. I'm thinking about moving up because there aren't any opponents left in this division who really get me fired up. And if I move up for that reason, I think featherweight will probably be the final division of my career.”

“I think so. Yeah.”

“I think any of them would make for an interesting fight. But Espinoza and Figueroa have particularly unique styles and sense of distance, so I think those would be fights that are difficult to predict. Leo and Carrington are more traditional in terms of their styles. But that's just talking about their styles.”

“Yeah. And sometimes those kinds of things can actually work perfectly for me, so it's hard to say exactly how it would play out.”

“I'd like to fight about twice.”

“Yeah, I'd say I'm already in the latter part of the latter part. When I look back at my career since I turned pro, I think I'm definitely at that stage now.”

“Part of me does want to finish my career undefeated. But if I become too attached to that, I feel like I might move away from what it means to challenge myself. So while I'd like to keep that goal in mind, I also want to show people, through the way I live out the final part of my career, that I'm willing to keep challenging myself all the way to the end.”