Featured Articles
Monster Indeed: Naoya Inoue Destroys Payano in Japan
Juan Carlos Payano was ranked the fifth best bantamweight in the world by the TBRB going into today’s fight with Naoya Inoue and would have been ranked

Juan Carlos Payano was ranked the fifth best bantamweight in the world by the TBRB going into today’s fight with Naoya Inoue and would have been ranked higher were it not for his desperately close loss in his 2016 rematch with Rau’shee Warren. Payano had beaten Warren the year before and in dropping the razor-thin majority call in the rematch he had posted the only loss of his career.
Until today when he met Naoya and was blasted out in a single round in Yokohama, Japan.
A career bantam, Payano has a mixture of rugged determination, elegant movement, elite workrate and experience that was supposed to present a genuine threat to the Japanese. Most of all, his proven punch resistance, heralded by appearances at the Olympics in 2004 and 2008 and by a 20-1 professional ledger that bore no stoppage losses, was supposed to represent a real test for Naoya’s punching power in his new bantamweight home.
True, Naoya had done away with the enormous Jamie McDonnell in just a round but there were mutterings about the Englishman’s suffering in making the weight. Where Payano was concerned, there were no such issues.
In mere seconds, Naoya destroyed Payano completely, knocked him into what amounted to unconsciousness and sent out a second consecutive warning to the 118lb division and to boxing at large. This contest, which was a quarter-final to the excellent WBSS bantamweight tournament, puts not just the other competitors on warning but to the likes of Vasyl Lomachenko and Terence Crawford. Naoya already holds straps in three divisions and at twenty-five years old and having fought just seventeen contests, there is a more to come. The best fighter in the world may now be Japanese for the first time in history (remembering that the legendary Fighting Harada shared his prime with a peak Muhammad Ali).
The pathology of his violence is exquisite. At bell he walked into Payano’s range and did nothing, then stepped just out of range; and back in. Payano was tempted, throwing a jab to the body and Naoya had now measured his guns. Left extended in a queer nodding motion, he shifted precisely nowhere in a deep stance that declares his intention while throwing none of the punches it promises. He is a watching, waiting, learning doom-machine that appears to have been programmed by Carlos Zarate.
Naoya circled with Payano, but maintained that eerie distance that allowed him to dip in and out of his opponent’s sphere of influence – and, by extension, drop Payano in and out of his own.
Payano is no stranger to strategy, to timing, to dueling for the range. He was an amateur of enormous experience and holds a win as a professional over the excellent Anselmo Moreno. He kept his left hand high, feinted with the southpaw jab, tried to buy a trailing lead to the body; normal fight stuff, the stuff that works to gain ground on mortals. Naoya skipped away from the lead, moving almost before it was thrown and at safe distance by the time Payano was trying to re-gather himself. Now Naoya had measured Payano’s over-extension.
Muscled and full-fleshed rather than the drawn fighter we saw at 108lbs, Naoya’s movement looks like that of a fighter who has found his home. Another division is almost certainly on the cards, a fifth far from impossible, but I suspect bantamweight is the division where we will see the best of him. Like Ruben Olivares, he is fast enough and hits hard enough to devastate top men in bigger weight classes, but here he is capable of the type of immolation that makes legends.
And this the thing that will stay most with me of the punches that separated Payano from his senses with two minutes of the first round remaining: they didn’t look that hard.
Like Zarate, who threw punches with the nonchalance of a drunk emptying ashtrays into his back yard, yet sent fighters broken and reeling, Naoya stuck out a sharp jab and in a fraction of a second, in the blinking of an eye, landed the right hand that accompanied it on the same spot. Like he had had his bones scooped from his body, Payano shrugged his shoulders and fell down and into himself, stiffened on the canvas, propped himself up on his elbows and then rolled over onto his side as though reclaiming sleep from an alarm clock as the messages of disaster rattled through his body.
Naoya, who knew immediately that he was victorious, pounded his gloves together and then raised his right fist to the roof of the Yokohama Arena. He literally had not broken a sweat. Besides the anxious wait to see that Payano was unhurt (he was), his evening was over.
In this article I have compared Naoya Inoue to Fighting Harada, Carlos Zarate and Ruben Olivares. I’m quite comfortable with that.
A poisoned bullet atop a stacked card from Japan, Naoya had thrown the best punch of the day but there were others of note. Ken Shiro, the best light-flyweight in the world and also Japanese, made short work of that divisional #5 contender, Milan Melindo. Shiro, now 14-0, brutally broke down his Filipino opponent with straight, two-handed fuselages of punches which disintegrated Melindo’s face with alarming rapidity. Cut, battered, vulnerable to the body while he desperately tried to protect his crumbling face, Melindo probably never stopped trying but when he was rescued by the ringside doctor during the seventh, there were no complaints.
Shiro, who is head and shoulders above the competition at 108lbs, may be the next pound-for-pound rated Japanese superstar.
Also on the undercard and a part of yet another WBSS tournament, this time at 140lbs, was a meeting between ranked light-welterweights Kiryl Relikh and Eduard Troyanovsky. Relikh advanced to the next round with a close, well-earned and unanimous points decision.
Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel
To comment on this article at The Fight Forum, CLICK HERE.
Featured Articles
Mercito Gesta Victorious Over Jojo Diaz at the Long Beach Pyramid

LONG BEACH, CA.-Those in the know knew Mercito Gesta and Jojo Diaz would be a fight to watch and they delivered.
Gesta emerged the winner in a super lightweight clash between southpaws that saw the judges favor his busier style over Diaz’s body attack and bigger shots and win by split decision on Saturday.
Despite losing the main event because the star was overweight, Gesta (34-3-3, 17 KOs) used an outside method of tactic to edge past former world champion Diaz (32-4-1, 15 KOs) in front of more than 5,000 fans at the Pyramid.
The speedy Gesta opened up the fight with combination punching up and down against the peek-a-boo style of Diaz. For the first two rounds the San Diego fighter overwhelmed Diaz though none of the blows were impactful.
In the third round Diaz finally began unloading his own combinations and displaying the fast hands that helped him win world titles in two divisions. Gesta seemed stunned by the blows, but his chin held up. The counter right hook was Diaz’s best weapon and snapped Gesta’s head back several times.
Gesta regained control in the fifth round after absorbing big blows from Diaz. He seemed to get angry that he was hurt and opened up with even more blows to send Diaz backpedaling.
Diaz targeted his attack to Gesta’s body and that seemed to slow down Gesta. But only for a round.
From the seventh until the 10th each fighter tried to impose their style with Gesta opening up with fast flurries and Diaz using right hooks to connect with solid shots. They continued their method of attack until the final bell. All that mattered was what the judges preferred.
After 10 rounds one judge saw Diaz the winner 97-93 but two others saw Gesta the winner 99-91, 98-92. It was a close and interesting fight.
“I was expecting nothing. I was the victor in this fight and we gave a good fight,” said Gesta. “It’s not an easy fight and Jojo gave his best.”
Diaz was surprised by the outcome but accepted the verdict.
Everything was going good. I thought I was landing good body shots,” said Diaz. “I was pretty comfortable.”
Other Bouts
Mexico’s Oscar Duarte (25-1-1, 20 KOs) knocked out Chicago’s Alex Martin (18-5, 6 KOs) with a counter right hand after dropping him earlier in the fourth round. The super lightweight fight was stopped at 1:14 of the round.
A battle between undefeated super welterweights saw Florida’s Eric Tudor (8-0, 6 KOs) emerge the winner by unanimous decision after eight rounds versus Oakland’s Damoni Cato-Cain.
The taller Tudor showed polished skill and was not bothered by a large cut on his forehead caused by an accidental clash of heads. He used his jab and lead rights to defuse the attacks of the quick-fisted southpaw Cato-Cain. The judges scored the fight 80-72 and 78-74 twice for Tudor.
San Diego’s Jorge Chavez (5-0, 4 KOs) needed less than one round to figure out Nicaragua’s Bryan Perez (12-17-1, 11 KOs) and send him into dreamland with a three-punch combination. No need to count as referee Ray Corona waved the fight over. Perez shot a vicious right followed by another right and then a see-you-later left hook at 3.00 of the first round of the super featherweight match.
Photo credit: Al Applerose
Featured Articles
Jojo Diaz’s Slump Continues; Mercito Gesta Prevails on a Split Decision

At age 30, Jojo Diaz’s career is on the skids. The 2012 U.S. Olympian, a former world title holder at 126 and 130 pounds and an interim title holder at 135, Diaz suffered his third straight loss tonight, upset by Mercito Gesta who won a split decision at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, CA.. The scoring was strange with Gesta winning nine of the 10 rounds on one of the cards and only three rounds on another. The tie-breaker, as it were, was a 98-92 tally for Gesta and even that didn’t capture the flavor of what was a closely-contested fight.
Originally listed as a 12-rounder, the match was reduced to 10 and that, it turned out, did Diaz no favors. However, it’s hard to feel sorry for the former Olympian as he came in overweight once again, having lost his 130-pound title on the scales in February of 2021.
Diaz also has issues outside the ropes. Best elucidated by prominent boxing writer Jake Donovan, they include a cluster of legal problems stemming from an arrest for drunk driving on Feb. 27 in the LA suburb of Claremont.
With the defeat, Diaz’s ledger declined to 32-4-1. His prior losses came at the hands of Gary Russell Jr, Devin Haney, and William Zepeda, boxers who are collectively 83-2. Mercito Gesta, a 35-year-old San Diego-based Filipino, improved to 34-3-3.
Co-Feature
Chihuahua, Mexico super lightweight Oscar Duarte has now won nine straight inside the distance after stopping 33-year-old Chicago southpaw Alex Martin in the eighth frame. Duarte, the busier fighter, had Martin on the deck twice in round eight before the fight was waived off.
Duarte improved to 25-1-1 (20). Martin, who reportedly won six national titles as an amateur and was once looked upon as a promising prospect, declined to 18-5.
Other Bouts of Note
New Golden Boy signee Eric Tudor, a 21-year-old super welterweight from Fort Lauderdale, overcame a bad laceration over his right eye, the result of an accidental clash of heads in round four, to stay unbeaten, advancing to 8-0 (6) with a hard-fought unanimous 8-round decision over Oakland’s Damoni Cato-Cain. The judges had it 80-72 and 78-74 twice. It was the first pro loss for Cato-Cain (7-1-1) who had his first five fights in Tijuana.
In the DAZN opener, lanky Hawaian lightweight Dalis Kaleiopu went the distance for the first time in his young career, improving to 4-0 (3) with a unanimous decision over 36-year-old Colombian trial horse Jonathan Perez (40-35). The scores were 60-52 across the board. There were no knockdowns, but Perez, who gave up almost six inches in height, had a point deducted for a rabbit punch and another point for deducted for holding.
To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
Featured Articles
‘Big Baby’ Wins the Battle of Behemoths; TKOs ‘Big Daddy’ in 6

Lucas “Big Daddy” Browne weighed in at a career-high 277 pounds for today’s battle in Dubai with Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller, but he was the lighter man by 56 pounds. It figured that one or both would gas out if the bout lasted more than a few stanzas.
It was a war of attrition with both men looking exhausted at times, and when the end came it was Miller, at age 34 the younger man by nine years, who had his hand raised.
Browne was the busier man, but Miller, whose physique invites comparison with a rhinoceros, hardly blinked as he was tattooed with an assortment of punches. He hurt ‘Bid Daddy’ in round four, but the Aussie held his own in the next frame, perhaps even forging ahead on the cards, but only postponing the inevitable.
In round six, a succession of right hands knocked Browne on the seat of his pants. He beat the count, but another barrage from Miller impelled the referee to intervene. The official time was 2:33. It was the 21st straight win for Miller (26-0-1, 22 KOs). Browne declined to 31-4 and, for his own sake, ought not fight again. All four of his losses have come inside the distance, some brutally.
The consensus of those that caught the livestream was that Floyd Mayweather Jr’s commentary was an annoying distraction that marred what was otherwise an entertaining show.
As for what’s next for “Big Baby” Miller, that’s hard to decipher as he has burned his bridges with the sport’s most powerful promoters. One possibility is Mahmoud Charr who, like Miller, has a big gap in his boxing timeline. Now 38 years old, Charr – who has a tenuous claim on a WBA world title (don’t we all?) — has reportedly taken up residence in Dubai.
Other Bouts of Note
In a 10-round cruiserweight affair, Suslan Asbarov, a 30-year-old Russian, advanced to 4-0 (1) with a hard-fought majority decision over Brandon Glanton. The judges had it 98-92, 97-93, and a more reasonable 95-95.
Asbarov was 12-9 in documented amateur fights and 1-0 in a sanctioned bare-knuckle fight, all in Moscow, entering this match. He bears watching, however, as Glanton (18-2) would be a tough out for almost anyone in his weight class. In his previous fight, at Plant City, Florida, Glanton lost a controversial decision to David Light, an undefeated Australian who challenges WBO world title-holder Lawrence Okolie at Manchester, England next week.
A 10-round super featherweight match between former world title challengers Jono Carroll and Miguel Marriaga preceded the semi-windup. Carroll, a 30-year-old Dublin southpaw, overcame a cut over his left eye suffered in the second round to win a wide unanimous decision in a fairly entertaining fight.
It was the sixth straight win for Carroll (24-2-1, 7 KOs) who elevated his game after serving as a sparring partner for Devin Haney. Marriaga, a 36-year-old Colombian, lost for the fourth time in his last five outings, declining to 30-7.
To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
A Shocker in the Philippines as Suganob Topples Vicelles
-
Featured Articles4 days ago
Canelo vs Ryder: A Stroll in the Park for the Red-Headed Mexican?
-
Featured Articles1 week ago
Angel Beltran Wins Main Event at Ken Thompson Tribute Show
-
Featured Articles3 weeks ago
The Hauser Report: A Club Fight Promoter Faces a Choice
-
Featured Articles4 weeks ago
Josh Taylor Assures Us His Fight With Teófimo López Will End in a Knockout
-
Featured Articles1 week ago
Beverly Hills Bluster as ‘Tank’ Davis and ‘King Ry’ Garcia Cap Their Mini-Tour
-
Featured Articles2 weeks ago
A Cursed Paradigm: The Fights That Boxing Cannot Deliver
-
Featured Articles1 week ago
‘Big Baby’ Miller vs ‘Big Daddy’ Browne: A Morbidly Tantalizing Match