Inoue vs. Donaire will air on ESPN

WBC Bantamweight Champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire, a 4-time champion whose late-career flourish cemented his status as one of boxing’s greatest bantamweight champions, has one more chance to make history.

Donaire will face WBA/IBF bantamweight champion Naoya “Monster” Inoue, who is 17-0 in world title fights.

These warriors will meet in a unification rematch on Tuesday, June 7 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Inoue and Donaire first fought in November 2019 at the same venue, with Inoue overcoming a broken orbital bone and fractured nose to win a decision.

“Naoya Inoue and Nonito Donaire’s first fight is one of the best championship fights I’ve ever seen, and I’m thrilled that fans will be able to watch the rematch on ESPN+,” said Top Rank President Bob Arum.

Donaire (42-6, 28 KOs), a 39-year-old future Hall of Famer who won his first world title at flyweight in 2007, has experienced a career renaissance since dropping down from featherweight after a decision loss to Carl Frampton in 2018. He earned stoppage wins over Ryan Burnett and Stephon Young in his first two bantamweight bouts before facing Inoue.

Donaire showed no adverse effects from the war he waged with Inoue, returning last May to defeat Nordine Oubaali via fourth-round stoppage to win the WBC title. Donaire then defended that belt in December with a fourth-round knockout of the previously undefeated Reymart Gaballo.

Inoue (22-0, 19 KOs), a three-division world champion, won the WBC light flyweight title in April 2014 and rose to pound-for-pound prominence with dominant careers at super flyweight and bantamweight. At one point, Inoue had a championship streak of seven consecutive knockouts against fighters who had never been stopped before.

He joined the bantamweight ranks in May 2018 with a devastating first-round knockout of Jamie McDonnell. A year later, he knocked out Emmanuel Rodríguez in two rounds to win the IBF world title. Since he unified the IBF and WBA belts against Donaire, Inoue has knocked out Jason Moloney, Michael Dasmariñas and Aran Dipaen.

Inoue-Donaire 2 and preliminary fights will air live and exclusively in the US on ESPN+ beginning at 5 a.m. PT. m. ET/2Y m. pt.