NEW YORK – Naoya Inoue’s return to the U.S. is a few pen strokes away from being finalized, and it will conclude a star-studded tripleheader of Cinco de Mayo weekend fights across the globe.

Three individuals connected to the deal told BoxingScene on Friday that Inoue, 29-0 (26 KOs), will fight Texas’ Ramon Cardenas, 26-1 (14 KOs), on May 4 – a Sunday – at an MGM property (most likely T-Mobile Arena) in Las Vegas.

The bout is in the final stage of negotiations, two officials said.

The card will also include a WBO featherweight title defense by Mexico’s Rafael Espinoza.

Earlier Friday, Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh announced he’s bringing a stirring tripleheader of title fights to New York’s Times Square to launch the weekend on Friday, May 2.

That card will be headlined by the joint returns of Ryan Garcia (versus former 140lbs titleholder Rolly Romero) and Devin Haney (versus former unified junior welterweight champion Jose Ramirez), along with WBO junior welterweight belt holder Teofimo Lopez Jnr meeting his No. 1 contender, Arnold Barboza Jnr.

A news conference to publicly announce that card is planned in New York next week.

On May 3 in Saudi Arabia, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will head a card intending to recapture his position as undisputed super middleweight champion against IBF titlist William Scull.

Topping it off, Japan’s four-division champion Inoue makes his first return to the U.S. since two bouts during the COVID era, in 2021 and 2020.

While Inoue was supposed to fight Mexico’s Alan David Picasso, negotiations broke off and ProBox TV fighter Cardenas, 29, emerged as the choice.

Ranked as a top-10 contender by three sanctioning bodies (WBA No. 2, IBF No. 8 and WBO No. 10), Cardenas offers hellacious punching power and is coming off an impressive February 8 unanimous decision victory over then-20-0 Bryan Acosta in San Antonio.

Cardenas’ February 2024 stoppage of Israel Rodriguez Picazo is an ultimate highlight. He unleashed a punch so vicious that it shattered and dislodged Picazo’s jaw, forcing an immediate stoppage of the fight.

“He hits very hard for the weight class. … He hits like a mule,” ProBox TV founder and BoxingScene owner Garry Jonas previously said of his fighter.

Cardenas’ Latino roots will also likely enrich his cheering section on the traditionally strongly attended boxing weekend in Las Vegas.

ESPN’s Salvador Rodriguez first mentioned the name of Cardenas as a possible Inoue foe on May 4 after BoxingScene previously reported Inoue’s U.S. return was being targeted to close the action-packed weekend.

Earlier Friday, an official connected to talks told BoxingScene that Inoue is expected to fight his WBA mandatory opponent and former titleholder Murodjan “M.J.” Akhmadaliev in September in Japan, and Alalshikh said last week that Inoue will fight in Saudi Arabia in December.

Cardenas’ spot in the Inoue main event marks a powerful presence for ProBox TV fighters, with junior lightweight Lamont Roach Jnr meeting Gervonta “Tank” Davis on Saturday in Brooklyn, New York, featherweight Angelo Leo defending his belt versus Tomoki Kameda on May 24 in Japan and Erickson Lubin fighting a junior middleweight title eliminator in May as well.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.