Just days into the New Year, fight fans are already drooling over with excitement following the announcement that Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani are on a collision course for 2 May at the Tokyo Dome.

Does it impact Philippine boxing?

Hell, yes.

Inoue and Nakatani are popular among boxing followers. But Inoue, nicknamed “Monster”, is the absolute fan favorite.

He is everyone’s target and it doesn’t look like he will remain just that even after dealing with Nakatani.

You see, while Nakatani is an elite fighter, Inoue would always be a cut above the rest.

This early, I am issuing a prediction: Inoue will emerge victorious.

And because he will stay red-hot, that leaves the next question: Is he going up in weight afterwards?

If Inoue jumps to featherweight, he will be campaigning in the same weight class as Johnriel Casimero.

But does it mean they are going to end up locking horns?

That’s a big question mark.

Unless Casimero aligns himself with a very influential promoter or does something extraordinarily special this year, he won’t appear on Inoue’s radar screen.

That is the sad truth.

Inoue’s datebook is starting to fill up and Casimero’s name is nowhere on that list.

Truly heartbreaking because, as I have said many times before, Casimero is the only guy out there capable of crushing Inoue.

He could have done that six years ago but the pandemic entered the scene and the fight wasn’t revived.

Since then, Casimero has decided to take a different route towards relevance.

He bounced from one promoter to another after splitting up with the revered Sean Gibbons and wound up inking a deal with Kameda Promotions.

He has fought twice but the quality of opposition is suspect. He lost the first fight with the Kameda group but won the second.

Still, only die-hard Casimero fans are trying their darn best to link his name with Inoue when the truth is the Leyte-born banger is not on the priority list.

Again, for Casimero to succeed in securing a monster deal, he has to come up with something really novel.

How ‘bout wrestling an alligator?