Naoya Inoue is no secret in boxing circles, but the feats of the fighter recognized merely as ‘The Monster’ are not totally celebrated within the wider sporting world. Yet there is a really sturdy argument the 31-year-old Japanese fighter is the main, most devastating exponent of the Noble Art on our planet proper now.
Earlier on Monday, with nice panache, precision, footwork and punch energy, Inoue cemented his place on the summit of boxing’s pound-for-pound checklist (a legendary checklist in fact, for debate amongst aficionados of the game) knocking out the Mexican Luis Nery within the sixth spherical in entrance of 55,000 adoring followers on the Tokyo Dome. The similar area, by the way, that Mike Tyson suffered his shock defeat to 42-1 underdog Buster Douglas in 1990.
If then monster ‘Iron Mike’ suffered by the hands of his nemesis Douglas that night time way back, it did not play into the thoughts of the game’s fashionable ‘Monster’ – Kaibutsu – as his ring sobriquet is recognized in his place of origin. Inoue is a sensation inside boxing, undefeated for 14 years, having received world titles in 4 weight divisions from 108lbs to 122lbs. In Japan, Inoue is a veritable megastar, a family identify.
Bob Arum, his promoter and the Top Rank Inc. boss, now within the sport for nearly 60 years, referred to 5ft 5in Inoue as “the best fighter I have ever seen” after the destruction of southpaw Nery, who had solely misplaced as soon as in his 36 skilled contests, and was naturally the larger man. Some accolade from Arum, given he has promoted lots of the nice fighters in his time, from Muhammad Ali and Marvin Hagler, to Floyd Mayweather Jr, Manny Pacquiao and latterly Tyson Fury.
There is definitely one thing very particular in Inoue’s type and his substance, underwritten by nice modesty, although he did take pleasure in somewhat showboating within the end of his Mexican opponent.
Why The Monster? Put merely, Inoue has a 90 per cent knockout ratio in world title fights – and he has been preventing in these for a decade – now inhabiting the identical elite rung as Terence Crawford, Oleksandr Usyk, Canelo Alvarez and others who’ve climbed the load divisions with their abilities and boxing IQ. Indeed, Inoue and Crawford are the one two male fighters to be undisputed champions in two weight divisions within the period of 4 world title belts per weight class. If Usyk defeats Tyson Fury in Riyadh in underneath two weeks’ time to assert all of the heavyweight belts, he’ll be part of and create a triumvirate of particular male prizefighters having completed the two-weight accolade.
This was an much more dramatic combat on condition that Inoue was knocked to the canvas within the opening spherical by a Nery left hook. Yet the second shocked Inoue right into a deep focus and certainly introduced out one of the best in him. The Japanese star had regarded open and careless in that opening stanza, on the lookout for devastating, aggressive punches, nearly recklessly. Yet all that journey to the canvas did was galvanise him to tighten up his defences, decide his foe aside and break him down with footwork, counter-punching abilities, and completely picked jabs, physique photographs and energy punches to convey a few end.
Inoue’s brilliance got here to the fore within the second stanza, with a brief left felling the Mexican, earlier than one other left hook within the fifth dropped Nery once more, the decisive end coming within the sixth spherical because the challenger’s depleted tensile power left him, Inoue catapulting the loser right into a unfastened limbed sufferer into the ropes and down with finality with a brutal proper hand to the chin. It meant Inoue accomplished a second defence of all of the tremendous bantamweight titles he had claimed final December.
How his viewers cheered him, as he addressed the throng post-fight. Perhaps why Inoue is a wider secret, is that despite preventing within the UK as soon as (and what a quick deal with it was when he KO’d Emmanuel Rodriguez in two rounds on the SSE Hydro in Glasgow 5 years in the past) and two sojourns to Las Vegas, his profession has been primarily based nearly solely in Japan.
In 27 fights in these 4 weight divisions, there have been 24 finishes, all witnessed at shut quarters by his father, Shingo Inoue: his coach and a former novice boxer himself. To full the fairytale, Inoue is married to his childhood sweetheart, with whom he has three youngsters. He loves Disneyland Parks, and his favorite film is Aladdin.
This genius – or genie – within the ring moved nearer to his future of changing into a contemporary grasp and one of many greats in boxing’s corridor of fame.
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