Talks are under way for Hassan N'Dam to take on Ryota Murata for the vacant WBA world middleweight title.
N'Dam (pictured) is looking for home advantage in France, but Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum believes Japan makes more sense.
"While N'Dam wants the fight to take place in France, we [Top Rank] think this fight would do extremely well in Japan and we are pulling out all stops in trying to bring it there," he said.
"Since winning Olympic gold in 2012, Ryota has developed a rabid fan base in Japan and we think those fans deserve to see their hero fight for his first professional world title. It would be a sensational event in Japan."
N'Dam (35-2, 21KOs), a native of Cameroon who fights out of France, is a two-time world title challenger.
He regained the interim WBA middleweight crown for a second time on December 17, scoring a devastating first-round stoppageof undefeated defending champion Alfonso Blanco in what many consider the knockout of the year for 2016.
Murata (12-0, 9KOs), from Tokyo, won all four of his 2016 bouts by knockout in fights that took place in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Las Vegas and Tokyo.
The tall, rangy fighter captured the Olympic gold medal in the middleweight division at the 2012 Olympics held in London.
It was the first gold medal won by a Japanese boxer since Takao Sakurai in 1964, and also is the first-ever boxing medal in a weight class other than bantamweight or flyweight.
Murata also became the 100th gold medalist in Japanese Olympic history.
