On December 13, 2022, the 34-year-old WBO bantamweight champion, Paul Butler (34-2, 15 KOs), and the 29-year-old WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, and The Ring bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (23-0, 20 KOs) faced each other for the undisputed world championpionship.
Butler came in to the fight on a 8-fight win streak with a 41% KO rate, and was fighting after a gap of 7 months and 21 days. Inoue was on a 23-fight win streak with a 87% KO rate, and fighting after a layoff of 6 months and 6 days.
Naoya Inoue stopped Paul Butler via KO in the 11th round and unified the WBO, WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, and The Ring bantamweight titles. Inoue improves his record to 24-0 (21 KOs), while Butler adds a loss to his record at 34-3.
On May 5, 2018, 29-year-old Paul Butler (26-1, 14 KOs) and 25-year-old Emmanuel Rodríguez (17-0, 12 KOs) fought for the vacant IBF bantamweight title.
Butler came in to the fight on a 9-fight win streak with a 51% KO rate, and was fighting after a gap of 3 months and 2 days. Rodríguez was on a 17-fight win streak with a 70% KO rate, and fighting after a layoff of 9 months.
Emmanuel Rodríguez defeated Paul Butler via unanimous decision . Rodríguez improves his record to 18-0, while Butler adds a loss to his record at 26-2.
On March 6, 2015, a 26-year-old Paul Butler (17-0, 8 KOs) got a shot at the super-flyweight IBF title held by 26-year-old South African boxer Zolani Tete (19-3, 16 KOs).
Butler came in to the fight on a 17-fight win streak with a 47% KO rate, and was fighting after a gap of 4 months and 9 days. Tete was on a 3-fight win streak with a 72% KO rate, and fighting after a layoff of 7 months and 16 days.
Zolani Tete stopped Paul Butler via TKO in the 8th round of the 12-round world-title fight, and successfully defended his IBF super-flyweight title. Tete improves his record to 20-3 (17 KOs), while Butler adds a loss to his record at 17-1.