Japan's Naoya Inoue announced Tuesday that he will seek a title in his third weight class when he challenges WBA bantamweight champion Jamie McDonnell of Britain in May.

In his 16th professional bout, Inoue, a former WBC light flyweight champion and WBO super flyweight champion, will face McDonnell in the Briton's seventh defense of his WBA crown on May 25 in Tokyo.

Should the 24-year-old Inoue win, he will become the fifth Japanese three-division world champion after Koki Kameda, Kazuto Ioka, Akira Yaegashi and Hozumi Hasegawa.

Inoue will vacate his WBO belt in the 115-pound (52.16-kilogram) weight class as he moves up to bantamweight at 118 lb (53.52 kg). He defended the WBO super flyweight title for the seventh straight time in December.

"(Bantamweight) is a class that's familiar to Japanese fans. I'm looking forward to going to that stage too," Inoue said at a press conference.

In his sixth professional bout, Inoue won the WBC light flyweight title and defended it once before jumping two weight classes to super flyweight in 2014. He is undefeated in with 15 wins, 13 by knockout.

The 31-year-old McDonnell, a former IBF bantamweight champ, has 29 wins, including 13 KOs, two losses and one draw.