John Riel Casimero after demolishing Duke Micah in their bantamweight title fight in Connecticut, USA. Photo from Showtime Boxing Twitter
MANILA, Philippines—John Riel Casimero is taking matters into his own hands just to make sure he can get that unification fight against top pound-for-pound fighter Naoya Inoue.
The WBO World bantamweight champion was in attendance during Shakur Stevenson’s bout against Jeremiah Nakathila where approached Arum to ask for a fight against Inoue, the man who holds the WBA Super, IBF, and The Ring belts.
“Give me Inoue,” said Casimero to the Top Rank CEO in a video he posted on his YouTube channel.
Arum, whose promotion organized the Stevenson-Nakathila card, simply said “maybe next fight?”
Arum also asked Casimero about his next fight against Guillermo Rigondeaux on August 14.
“Are you fighting now? Who you fighting again? Rigondeaux? He’s tough,” said Arum.
Casimero (30-4) was supposed to take on Inoue, the no.2 pound-for-pound boxer in Ring Magazine’s ratings, in April 2020 but that match was cut due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Inoue (20-0) wasn’t able to fly to the United States from Japan and that left Casimero to remain idle while staying in Las Vegas.
When Inoue did fly to the US, he fought Jason Moloney instead of Casimero with the latter settling for Duke Micah whom he finished in three rounds.
Inoue is set to defend his titles against Michael Dasmariñas on June 19.