Naoya Inoue bolstered his claim as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter on Monday when he came off the floor to retain his undisputed junior featherweight championship with a technical knockout of Luis Nery.
A sold-out crowd of around 50,000 spectators at the Tokyo Dome was stunned into silence near the end of the opening round when a heavy left hook dumped Inoue to the canvas for the first time in his 12-year professional career. But a hyper-focused Inoue, the unbeaten Japanese star known as the Monster, returned the favor and then some. He knocked down his Mexican opponent in the second and fifth before closing the show with a devastating right hook in the sixth.
“I don’t remember anything my dad [head trainer Shingo Inoue] told me in the intermission, but that [knockdown] happening gave me good motivation,” said Inoue, who improved to 27 wins in 27 paying fights with 24 coming by knockout. “I was so focused until the end of the fight.”
Less than six months after making history by stopping Marlon Tapales to unify the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO world titles at 122lbs, the 31-year-old Inoue further strengthened his pound-for-pound credentials in improving to 22-0 with 20 knockouts in world championship fights, punctuating the latest chapter in a destructive upward surge through boxing’s weight divisions not seen since Manny Pacquiao’s prime.
Nery (35-2, 27 KOs), a former two-division world champion who held the WBC’s version of the title at bantamweight and junior featherweight, went off as a 10-1 underdog before a hostile crowd on Monday. But the Tijuana southpaw caught his reckless foe coming in with a flush left hand near the end of the first round. Inoue appeared more shocked than hurt, taking a knee early in the count and calmly making it to his feet at eight before surviving Nery’s closing efforts and surviving until the bell.
The second round unfolded on even terms for the first two minutes until Inoue returned the favor with a sharp counter left hook to the inside that dropped an overextended Nery to the deck. From that point Inoue seemed to be timing his opponent, whose lack of an alternative plan led to complications in the third.
By the fourth, Inoue’s unique cocktail of power, speed and footwork was on full display as he pointed to his jaw and showboated in the center of the ring. Nery’s face began to swell as Inoue peppered him with punches, looking to set up the left hand to the midsection.
The end appeared near during the fifth when Nery dropped his guard just long enough for Inoue to detonate a left hand on his chin, putting the Mexican down for a second time. Nery was saved by the bell after beating the count but proved less fortunate in the sixth, when a massive right dropped him for the third and final time, prompting an immediate intervention from referee Michael Griffin.
Inoue landed 107 of 239 blows (44.8%), according to Compubox’s punch statistics, compared to 54 of 194 for Nery (27.8%).
“I appreciate Nery,” Inoue said through a translator. “That’s why I shook hands with him after the fight. The knockdown motivated me. I am thankful to have fought against a great fighter in Nery.”
It was the latest sensational finish for the 5ft 5in knockout merchant from Kanagawa prefecture, who captured his first world title at 108lbs in only his sixth professional fight before adding another belt at 115lbs, then becoming the undisputed champion at 118lbs and 122lbs over a 378-day span.
A card stacked with four world title fights marked boxing’s return to the Big Egg for the first time since February 1990, when a 42-1 underdog named James ‘Buster’ Douglas knocked out then-unbeaten heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in one of the great upsets in all of sport.
Inoue is no Tyson. He’s even better, both on body of work and appetite for destruction. He has fought 13 world champions and beaten every one of them. At 31, he’s already one of the finest at any weight from any era: a true superstar and the arguably the greatest show in sports today.
Whether it was enough for Inoue to eclipse the undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford atop boxing’s pound-for-pound list is a matter of opinion. But that it’s become a two-horse race is beyond credible dispute.
Before even departing the ring on Monday night, Inoue suggested his next fight will be in September against the undefeated Australian Sam Goodman, the top-ranked junior featherweight contender by two of boxing’s four major sanctioning bodies.
“I’ve been mandatory for over a year,” Goodman said after climbing through the ropes to join Inoue. “Either give up the belts or fight me. Let’s get it on.”
