Naoya Inoue vs David Picasso: Japan’s Highest-Paid Fighter Nears $50 Million in 2025
Inoue is scheduled to face David Picasso on 27 December 2025, his fourth fight of the year in what has become the most lucrative calendar year of his professional career. Naoya Inoue remains undefeated and widely regarded as pound-for-pound benchmark across bantamweight and super-bantamweight.
He is also the highest-paid Japanese boxer of all time and we breakdown his potential purse payout against Picasso and look back at his 2025 earnings.
Naoya Inoue vs David Picasso Purse Payouts:
Naoya Inoue is set to clear $15 million guaranteed and could reach $20 million with PPV bonuses as the event headlines The Ring V: Night of the Samurai card on Dazn PPV priced at $69.99 in the US, £19.99 in the UK.
David Picasso: is also set to earn his career best earnings of $2 million (including any PPV bonuses). His previous best purse came against Kyonosuke Kameda where he earned around $500,000.
| Fighter | Purse Payouts |
|---|---|
| Naoya Inoue | $15 million (guaranteed) plus another $5 million in PPV bonuses. |
| David Picasso | $2 million (guaranteed) |
| Event Total | $22 million including any potential PPV bonuses. |
Naoya Inoue’s 2025 Earnings Breakdown
Inoue has already fought three times in 2025, defeating the likes of Ye Joon Kim, Ramon Cardenas, and Murodjon Akhmadaliev. Those fights have already earned him estimated $35 million in total earnings this year. He is featured in salaryleaks' top 10 highest-paid boxers of 2025. The upcoming fight against Picasso is expected to push his annual earnings close to $50 million making him the highest paid Japenese fighter of all-times.
3️⃣Murodjon Akhmadaliev: $19 million (including PPV bonuses)
2️⃣Ramon Cardenas: $7 million
1️⃣Ye Joon Kim: $9 million
Inoue’s payouts in 2025 represents a significant jump from his career-best $6.5 million purse against Luis Nery in May 2024. Underlining how good he really is considering this amount of money at Bantamweight class is unheard of before. This growth has been further supported by major sponsorship deals, including a reported $17.7 million sponsorship deal with Riyadh Season to put their branding on his shorts.
David Picasso’s 2025 Activity:
David Picasso was suppose to fight Inoue earlier in 2025 but withdrew in February. Leaving Japense star to look for yet another replacement. David Picasso is no pushover himself as he fought 5 times in 2024 and stayed undefeated. However has fought only once in 2025, defeating Kyonosuke Kameda on the undercard of Pacquiao vs Barrios which brought his his career best purse of $500,000.
Now regardless who Inoue is fighting the financial outlook of the bout is usually structured around Inoue as the clear A-side, with Saudi money and undisputed championship status brings global recognition and that is where he is cashing the rewards.
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