Naoya Inoue cemented his claim as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter Monday when he came off the floor and retained his undisputed junior featherweight championship with a technical knockout of Luis Nery.
A sold-out crowd of approximately 50,000 spectators at the Tokyo Dome was silenced 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 undefeated 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.
“That [knockdown] gave me good motivation,” said Inoue, who improved to 27 wins in 27 paying fights, 24 of them 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 all four world titles at 122 pounds, the 31-year-old Inoue further strengthened his pound-for-pound credentials by improving to 21-0 with 19 knockouts in world championships. It marks the latest chapter in a destructive upward wave 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 version of the bantamweight and junior featherweight titles, left Monday as a 10-1 underdog in front of a hostile crowd. But the Tijuana southpaw caught his reckless foe coming in with a flush left hand near the end of the first round. Inoue looked more shaken than hurt, dropping to one knee early in the count and calmly rising to his feet at eight before outlasting Nery’s closing efforts and surviving until the bell.
The second round was evenly matched for the first two minutes until Inoue returned the favor with a sharp inside left hook that sent an overworked Nery to the deck. From then on, Inoue seemed to time 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 was he pointed to his jaw and showed in the center of the ring. Nery’s face began to swell as Inoue bombarded him with punches, attempting to direct the left hand to his stomach.
The end seemed near during the fifth when Nery dropped his guard just long enough for Inoue to unleash a left hand to the 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 huge right dropped him for the third and final time, prompting immediate intervention from referee Michael Griffin.
According to Compubox’s punch statistics, Inoue landed 107 of 239 punches (44.8%), compared to 54 of 194 for Nery (27.8%).
It was the latest sensational finish for the 6-foot-4 Inoue, who captured his first world title at 108 pounds in just his sixth professional fight before adding another title at 115 pounds, then becoming the undisputed champion at 118 pounds and 122 pounds over a period of 378 days.
A card packed 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-undefeated heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in one of the biggest setbacks. across the sport.
Inoue is no Tyson. He’s better, both in terms of body of work and hunger for destruction. He has fought thirteen world champions and defeated them all. At 31 years old, he is already one of the best at any weight and from any era: a true superstar and perhaps the biggest show in the sport today.
Whether it was enough for Inoue to eclipse undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford at the top of boxing’s pound-for-pound list is a matter of opinion. But the fact that it has become a two-horse race is beyond credible discussion.