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A few notes from around the boxing world: • Junior bantamweight titlist Naoya Inoue (8-0, 7 KOs), the 21-year-old Japanese prodigy who was a strong 2014 fighter of the year candidate, was supposed to make his first defense in May. However, Inoue suffered a right hand injury during his second-round knockout victory to win a title from Omar Narvaez on Dec. 30 in Tokyo and promoter Hideyuki Ohashi announced this week that the injury will force him to delay his next fight. Ohashi said Inoue will see a doctor next week to have the hand examined to determine when he likely will be able to get back in the ring. Inoue had a terrific 2014 in which he knocked out Adrian Hernandez in the sixth round to win a junior flyweight world title, made one defense in September and then moved up two weight classes to dethrone Narvaez, the long-reigning titleholder. • Australian heavyweight Lucas Browne (22-0, 19 KOs) has been designated as the mandatory challenger for secondary titlist Ruslan Chagaev. "Chagaev has shown that he's one of best heavyweights around, but Lucas is a massive puncher and can knock him out," said Ricky Hatton, Browne's promoter. "Australia has never had a world champion at heavyweight so this is a chance for Lucas to make history and he's going to grab it with both hands. Lucas is a warrior who'll fight anyone at any time and he has been itching to get back in the ring. We've had a lot of people asking when they'll see him fight again and I think the fans will be very pleased now that we can reveal what we've been working on.” • The UIC Pavilion in Chicago will be the venue for the April 24 Spike TV card headlined by super middleweight titlist Anthony Dirrell (27-0-, 22 KOs) in his first defense against Badou Jack (18-1-1, 12 KOs), according to the network. • Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya was hoping to make a spring fight between lightweight titlist Jorge Linares (38-3, 25 KOs) and former unified featherweight titleholder Yuriorkis Gamboa (24-1, 17 KOs) but those plans are on hold as Gamboa, who prefers to fight at junior lightweight, is looking to go in another direction. Linares won a vacant belt on Dec. 30 by fourth-round knockout of Javier Prieto in Tokyo.
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