TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Unbeaten Japanese stars Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani verbally agreed to fight each other next year during the annual award ceremony for the country's boxers on Monday.

Inoue, who turns 32 on April 10, was named the best men's boxer for the seventh straight year and for the eighth time overall after defending his undisputed super bantamweight title twice in 2024, knocking out Luis Nery of Mexico in May and Ireland's TJ Doheny in September.

"It turned out to be a special year. I want to make this year even better," Inoue said during his speech, in which he also called out the 27-year-old Nakatani.

"I want to do the best I can this year for the big domestic match that lots of fans and people around the sport have been talking about. Mr. Nakatani, a year later at Tokyo Dome, let's lift the mood around Japanese boxing together."

Nakatani, the WBC bantamweight champion, replied, "Sure, let's do it," before the two shook hands, smiling.

Inoue, 29-0 in his career with 26 knockouts, defended his title again in January and plans to fight three more times this year ahead of the highly anticipated matchup with Nakatani, who is 30-0 with 23 KOs.

"If we can come through this year strongly, I believe it will be the most exciting bouts between Japanese in the country's boxing history," Inoue said.

Nakatani, who won the technique and KO awards at the event, said, "I have to develop further. I'm looking to get wins in a more impactful manner."

Inoue is second and Nakatani eighth in Ring magazine's pound-for-pound ranking.