Strong, fast, explosive

Johnriel Casimero remains the lead Filipino world boxing champion with a realistic path to a big fight once boxing manages to emerge through the coronavirus pandemic.

A couple of fantastic proposals—Manny Pacquiao against either Terence Crawford or Gennady Golovkin—pale out against Casimero’s postponed world bantamweight unification championship against the unbeaten Japanese sensation Naoya Inoue.

Casimero is the WBO bantamweight champion, while Inoue holds the IBF and WBA bantamweight titles.

The Inoue-Casimero fight has been listed with a high possibility of being staged in boxing’s expected comeback.

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Inoue is still at home training, and his chief handler Akihiko Honda said their next target is to have the superstar’s passport stamped at the US Embassy in Japan for passage to boxing capital Las Vegas.

Casimero has preferred to stay in Las Vegas and last reports said he’s waiting to shift to high gear in his extended preparations.

Angel “Memo” Heredia, the famous strength and conditioning guru who sculpted Casimero into great form in his triumphant clash against African Zolani Tete for the WBO bantamweight crown in Birmingham, England, last November, wanted the battle-scared Filipino road warrior to check in as a complete package.

“He needs to be strong, fast, explosive,” Heredia declared after his last check on Casimero, training under Nonoy Neri in a rented facility in Nevada.

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Heredia explained Casimero must be in the best condition possible.

But there’s no hurry.

“We don’t want to impose early or overtrain our athlete,” he added.

So far, there has been no solid direction after Top Rank gambled and presented two cards around the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, highlighted by a colorful stoppage by the fabulous Shakur Stevenson.

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Casimero must be better than in his last fight, when he stopped Tete inside three rounds.

Casimero must be in the best condition ever, Heredia stressed, pointing to speed, power and stamina as key factors

“I want to sustain his mobility and muscle reaction for a longer time” Heredia explained.

There so far has been no mention how they plan to offset Inoue’s fearsome body attacks and vast edge in ringsmanship and technique.