Ohashi Promotions previously planned to have Naoya Inoue and Yoshiki Takei share a bill earlier this year.

The pair of unbeaten boxers will now bookend championship events on two separate continents in May.

Takei, 10-0 (8 KOs), will revisit old business as he is rescheduled to face Thailand’s Yuttapong Tongdee, 15-0 (9 KOs), in the second defense of his WBO bantamweight title. The bout will headline a May 28 event at the Yokohama Buntai arena in Takei’s hometown of Yokohama, Japan.

News of the repurposed title fight was confirmed during a press conference Monday in Yokohama. The card will also include a vacant IBF junior lightweight title fight between Mexico’s Eduardo “Sugar” Nuñez, 27-1 (27 KOs), and Japan’s Masanori Rikiishi, 16-1 (11 KOs).

Both events will air live on Lemino Premium in Japan. Global televised/streaming rights were not revealed by this story’s publication time.

Takei and Tongdee were previously due to meet last December 24 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. Japan. The entire event was postponed by one month to January 24 when Australia’s Sam Goodman, 19-0 (8 KOs), suffered a cut during a late sparring session ahead of his challenge for Inoue’s undisputed junior featherweight championship.

The revised date proved unkind to Takei, who suffered a torn labrum during training camp. Ironically, Goodman never made it to fight night as he withdrew from the Inoue bout for a second time due to injury.

Inoue went on to face Ye Joon Kim, 21-2-2 (13 KOs), whom he stopped in the fourth round. The night ended a five-event streak where Inoue and Takei both appeared on the card.

While the show went on without Takei, he still had the obligation to defend his title. The 28-year-old southpaw remained committed to his word to next face Tongdee, a first-time title challenger from Bangkok who has never fought outside of Thailand.

Takei outpointed Australia’s Jason Moloney, 27-3 (19 KOs), to win the WBO bantamweight title last May 3 at the Tokyo Dome. The bout was the chief support to Inoue’s off-the-canvas sixth-round knockout of Luis Nery, 35-2 (29 KOs), to retain his undisputed junior featherweight championship defense.

In his most recent bout, Takei turned away countryman and former flyweight titleholder Daigo Higa via unanimous decision last Sept. 3 at Ariake Arena. Inoue stopped TJ Doheny, 26-4 at the time, in the seventh round of the evening’s main event.

Takei’s title defense takes place 24 days after the 29-0 (26 KOs) Inoue’s scheduled meeting with San Antonio’s Ramon Cardenas, 26-1 (14 KOs), atop a May 4 ESPN telecast from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, a pair of title hopefuls aim to fill the last remaining vacancy in the 130-pound division. 

Nuñez and Rikiishi were previously ordered by the IBF to enter negotiations for the title vacated by Belfast’s Anthony Cacace, 23-1 (8 KOs). The ruling was all but moot as both sides were already in advanced talks to fight on this very date.

Nuñez became the mandatory challenger after an eleventh-round knockout of former IBF 130-pound titlist Shavkat Rakhimov in their title eliminator last February 16 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. He was twice ordered to enter talks with the now former titleholder.

The second round of talks resulted in a reported agreement, but no actual fight date before Cacace opted to relinquish the belt for what his team viewed as a higher-profile affair against former WBA featherweight titlist Leigh Wood.

The waiting game has seen Nuñez fight just once since his thrilling win over Rakhimov. It came last August 31, when he knocked out former title challenger Miguel Marriaga, 31-8 (26 KOs), in the sixth round of a DAZN-aired fight from Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

Nuñez has knocked out each of his last seventeen opponents.

Rikiishi’s first title opportunity is arriving shortly after he relocated to Yokohama, where he now fights out of the Ohashi gym.

The 30-year-old southpaw has won each of his last five fights inside the distance.

Rikiishi’s most significant win occurred on the road and in come-from-behind fashion. He rallied to stop Michael Magnesi in the 12th and final round last March 22 on the road in Colleferro, Italy. Rikiishi was down on all three scorecards (107-102, 106-103 and 106-103) but got the knockout he very much needed to extend his current win streak.