As previously reported by The Ring, undisputed junior featherweight champion Naoya Inoue wants to fight three more times this year.

The next fight Inoue (29-0, 26 KOs) will take will be against David Picasso, slated for the spring in the United States with a June target date in Las Vegas. If all goes well, “The Monster” also has plans to fight on a date in September, and then make his Riyadh Season debut on a date in December in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Turki Alalshikh, head of Riyadh Season and chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, recently struck a deal with Inoue to stage fights with the pound-for-pound star.

At a recent press conference, promoter Frank Warren told the media that he would like to see Inoue face WBA featherweight champion Nick Ball on the December Riyadh date.

Inoue has captured world titles at 108, 115, 118 and 122. A fight against Ball at 126 would present the opportunity for Inoue to become a five-division world champion.

In a Reddit conversation with fans on Friday, Alalshikh clarified that Inoue’s long-anticipated move up to 126 pounds is not imminent and that the Japanese star will stay at 122 pounds for the foreseeable future.

When Alalshikh was asked if he planned to make an Inoue fight against Ball, he replied: “Yes, I want to see this fight. The only problem, Inoue doesn't want to move weights this year.

Inoue, a former undisputed bantamweight champion, moved up to 122 pounds in 2023 and collected the division titles in two fights by stopping unified champions Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales. Inoue was awarded Fighter of the Year honors for the accolades. Inoue defended the titles in 2024 against Luis Nery and TJ Doheny. In January, he stopped Ye Joon Kim, a replacement opponent for Sam Goodman, in four rounds.

The pool of 122-pound opponents for Inoue, a four-division champion and The Ring’s No. 2 ranked pound-for-pound fighter, is paper thin.

Former unified champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev, Inoue’s WBA mandatory, is the most sensible matchup that could be made, and it could likely be the fight Inoue pursues for his December date in Saudi Arabia.

Another cracker of a clash could be against fellow countryman and three-division champion Junto Nakatani, a WBC 118-pound champion who’s planning to move up to 122 pounds in the near future.

In a Friday interview with ESPN's Mike Coppinger, Alalshikh expressed interest in seeing that Japanese mega-fight happen as well.

"I prefer the champion from Japan [Nakatani]. This is [what] I prefer. But if it doesn't happen [in December], it will be one of the great fights that we will bring [in the future]," Alalshikh said.