Naoya Inoue – Boxing’s complete fighter

By Dan Morley

Japanese boxing has lengthy produced legendary fighters. Relationship again to the ‘60s, an period by which Japan’s ferocious Combating Harada cemented himself because the nation’s biggest pugilist—compiling a number of division titles and scoring simultaneous victories over a person deemed by some because the Sixties fighter of the last decade, Eder Jofre. 

While Harada, a human embodiment of a wrecking ball, impressively cemented his eternal legacy by beating Brazil’s best-ever fighter -being the one man in Jofre’s 80+ battle profession to do so- his longstanding achievements could quickly be surpassed. 

Japanese boxing is at the moment on the peak of its energy, holding extra champions immediately than every other nation on the planet. The bantamweight and super-bantamweight divisions are solely dominated by Japanese champions. Knockout sensation Junto Nakatani most just lately entered the illustrious Ring Journal’s high 10 pound-for-pound rankings.

But the person he joins amongst boxing’s finest towers above the remainder. The monster whose menacing presence has struck concern and devastation throughout 4 divisions over a ugly decade of dominance is Naoya Inoue.

I had first heard whispers of a Japanese sensation dismantling champions of their titles and livers again in 2014. A brutal physique puncher with defensive craft and blistering hand velocity, systematically dispatching of unified world champions from simply his fourth skilled battle.

While Inoue has turn into a star lately and has reigned because the Ring Journal’s finest fighter on the planet, it’s simple to neglect how a lot he has already completed, particularly for these much less conversant in boxing’s smaller divisions.

Naoya’s report is 27-0 with 24 KOs. Once you dig into the standard, it turns into one thing to behold. As a battle with former world champion TJ Doheny beckons, Inoue at the moment holds 14 victories towards 13 World Champions, the second most champions defeated in boxing immediately, solely behind Canelo. 

22 of those victories have been in consecutive world title fights, with 20 KOs – the whole variety of bouts with world honours on the road, simply 4 shy of the legendary Floyd Mayweather Jr’s profession complete.

After stopping Adrian Hernandez to win his first title, ‘The Monster’ then blasted away Omar Narvaez in two rounds. Narvaez, certainly one of boxing’s longest-reigning champions, had 22 title wins to his identify, remaining undefeated on the weight all through his run, having suffered only one defeat in an ill-fated problem towards bantamweight nice Nonito Donaire, who would win through UD. 

Simply eight fights in, already a multi-division champion, Inoue retained his second division title eight instances earlier than transferring as much as embark on the now legendary ‘Two Division Undisputed’ conquest.

The bantamweight champions, Jamie McDonnell, Juan Carlos Payano  (beforehand unstopped) and undefeated Emmanuel Rodriguez, had been coldly blasted away inside the first and second rounds. A battle of the ages adopted, with Nonito Donaire, extremely buying and selling toe to toe, in Inoue’s hardest problem to this point, but it was one he handed valiantly. 

Champions Donaire, Moloney and Butler would all fall to violent stoppages, with bantamweight supremacy accomplished. Refusing to take simple fights, the super-bantamweight division’s champions Fulton, Tapales and Nery quickly fell sufferer simply over a yr and a half later.

 A superb resume already, all-time nice figures and achievements acquired. But Inoue doesn’t appear to be slowing down, having already travelled a five-division span from Junior Flyweight to super-bantamweight, sustaining all-time nice knockout energy. How a lot additional can the monster go?

The constraints in that reply could lie in his ceiling weight-wise, but I believe the 126-pound division has titles that Inoue is greater than able to profitable. 

While the resume alone speaks volumes, it’s additionally value exploring stylistically what has made Inoue such a potent destroyer. 

In fact, there’s the formidable punching energy paying homage to old-school, all-time nice punchers within the lighter weight courses. Wilfredo ‘Bazooka’ Gomez scored KOs throughout all of his first 38 wins, Carlos Zarate retired with 63 KOs in 66 Profession victories, and Mexican bantamweight nice Ruben Olivares completed up with 79 KOs in 89 wins. Inoue is blessed with related sorts of freakish energy from a small body. 

But it’s culminated with Pacquiao-esque velocity and phenomenal timing. For those who assess the knockouts, particularly the Moloney or Payano proper palms, the beautiful timing of those punchers maximises the harm.

He can stroll you down constantly whereas remaining elusive on the entrance foot. The ability in his palms, plus a high-level ring IQ, maintain retreating opponents extraordinarily hesitant whereas persistently burning psychological vitality. 

This may be seen with each the set-up pictures he releases to create crushing openings elsewhere, for instance, the brief proper hand launched earlier than smashing Narvaez’s liver or the fixed, long-winding jab to Fulton’s abdomen, which over time units up the appropriate hand to complete the battle. 

One other monstrous efficiency from Inoue. Getty Photographs

For those who try to push Inoue again, his skill to evaluate distance and counterpunch is elite. We noticed clear glimpses of this within the Nery battle, the place the over-eager Mexican charged right into a retreating Inoue left hook.

On the off likelihood you’ll be able to catch him, as seen in each the Nery bout and Donaire traditional, he’ll adapt, and possesses the smarts and coronary heart to push via adversity and stay on high. Even a damaged orbital bone proved a small impediment to beat, with Inoue blocking the attention together with his proper glove to take care of imaginative and prescient issues.

Securing dozens of knockouts with uppercuts, hooks, straights and physique pictures – the arsenal of ending punches is full. With all of this mixed, coming into what could also be deemed to be his peak years, constructing off of an already good profession, I imagine Inoue, will finally cement himself as an all time nice and Japan’s biggest of all time.