Will Japan’s Biggest Boxing Star Ever Become A Household Name?

Naoya Inoue’s (33-0) May 2 win over Junto Nakatani (32-1) to retain his undisputed super bantamweight title, which took place at the Tokyo Dome, pulled in over $30 million at the gate and surpassed 500,000 pay-per-view buys, however, his hometown fans in Japan were the overwhelming majority of the audience that tuned in for the fight.

Inoue secured a hard-fought unanimous decision to give Nakatani the first loss of his career: 116-112, 115-113, 116-112. With the PPVs priced at $40 each and sales already past 500,000 before the final count, analysts project the total could reach as high as 800,000 buys.

The numbers cement Inoue as one of Japan’s biggest stars, however, since the United States broadcast time was 3:00 AM ET, the American audience was more focused on the Benavidez vs Ramirez world championship fight in Las Vegas, which aired on prime time.

For Inoue to become a highly marketable fighter outside of Japan, boxing’s current number 2 pound for pound fighter, will have to begin competing in more high-profile fights in the U.S., just like Manny Pacquiao did. Time will tell if Inoue will be able to replicate what PAC did and go from becoming a star in his own country to becoming a household name across the globe.

“Yahoo Japan confirms our previous report: over 30 million dollars in box office for the Tokyo Dome event at the Naoya Inoue vs Junto Nakatani card. And from PPVs, they had already sold more than 500000 on Thursday at 40 USD each, so they would probably sell quite a bit more, 800k PPVs,” Inoue said