Boxing: Inoue vacates 4 belts, moves up to super bantam

Undefeated Japanese boxer Naoya Inoue announced his decision Friday to relinquish all four bantamweight belts and move up to the super bantamweight division. The 29-year-old, nicknamed "Monster," completed a sweep of the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF belts last month with an 11th-round knockout of Britain's Paul Butler, who came in as the World Boxing Organization's bantamweight champion. "The real battle starts from here," Inoue said at a press conference in Yokohama. "I'm very excited." He became the first Japanese to top the pound-for-pound rankings published by the prestigious Ring magazine in June 2022 and now has a 24-0 record, with 21 knockouts.