The rest of Naoya Inoue’s year has been tentatively scheduled.

The Ring has learned that after boxing’s undisputed junior featherweight champion defends his titles against Alan Picassco at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on a June date to be announced,

“The Monster,” assuming he tops Picasso, will return to his home country of Japan for another fight against undetermined opponent sometime in September.

If Inoue (29-0, 26 KOs) were to emerge victorious and unscathed from the September bout as well, The Ring’s No. 2 fighter, pound-for-pound would then make his Riyadh Season debut in December against an opponent to be confirmed.

One of the possibilities for December, is mandatory challenger Murodjohn Akhmadaliev.

His bout versus Akhmadaliev is one that Turki Alalshikh - owner of The Ring and head of Riyadh Season - wants to make. The bout in December would mark Inoue’s fourth fight of 2025 if everything goes according to plan.

Uzbekistan’s Akhmadaliev, The Ring’s No. 2 contender in the junior featherweight division, has been calling out Inoue for quite some time. He told The Ring during an interview Monday that he believes the Japanese superstar is “ducking” him.

The left-handed Akhmadaliev (13-1, 10 KOs) is the WBA’s interim super bantamweight champion and therefore its mandatory challenger for Inoue, who also owns The Ring, IBF, IBO, WBC and WBO 122-pound championships. Picasso (31-0-1, 17 KOs) is the WBC’s mandatory challenger, but Akhmadliev noted that it is the WBA’s turn in the sanction organizations’ rotation for mandated 122-pound title defenses.

The WBA ordered an immediate rematch between the Philippines’ Marlon Tapales and Akhmadaliev after Tapales upset Akhmadaliev by split decision in April 2023 in San Antonio. Akhmadaliev allowed Tapales to fight Inoue first, on the condition that the winner would face Akhmadaliev in his subsequent bout.

Inoue knocked out Tapales (39-4, 20 KOs) in the 10th round of their bout in December 2023 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. Tapales remains The Ring’s No. 1-ranked junior featherweight contender to Inoue’s title.