After disposing of Stephen Fulton in savage fashion, Naoya Inoue will not have to wait long for his next challenge.
Moments after being crowned the new unified super bantamweight world champion on Tuesday in Tokyo, Japan, Inoue was confronted by Marlon Tapales, the unified WBA and IBF champ.
"I want to fight Naoya Inoue because I want to prove to myself that I'm a champion," Tapales said in the ring.
Inoue didn't waste time accepting.
"Let's do this — this year," he shot back before the two shook hands.
ESPN+ reported that the fight could come in November of this year.
Fighting Tapales (37-3, 19 KOs) would give Inoue (25-0, 22 KOs) the opportunity of following up his undisputed bantamweight world championship from last year with undisputed super bantamweight glory this year.
The only other boxer to perform a back-to-back undisputed feat like that was Claressa Shields, although Terence Crawford can achieve the feat with a win over Errol Spence Jr. on Saturday night.