Naoya Inoue Was Sensational; Crawford and Spence Have a Tough Act to Follow

Published

2 years ago

July 25, 2023

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Imagine, if you can, three modern-day art critics being transported back in time to the early 16^th century and being afforded the privilege of watching Michelangelo paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. That would be roughly the level of awe espoused by ESPN+’s blow-by-blow commentator Joe Tessitore and analysts Timothy Bradley Jr. and Mark Kriegel in unanimously critiquing the masterwork crafted by Japan’s miniature “Monster,” Naoya Inoue, who demolished previously undefeated WBC/WBO super bantamweight champion Stephen Fulton Tuesday in Tokyo’s Ariake Arena. From the opening bell for round one to his two-knockdown KO sequence of Fulton in the eighth stanza, Inoue treated the highly regarded, and naturally larger, Philadelphian almost as if he were some semi-anonymous sparring partner.

“We sometimes overuse the word `greatness’ in boxing, but not here, not now,” Tessitore said gushingly from Las Vegas, where he and his cohorts have a Top Rank show to cover on Friday on the eve of the welterweight unification megafight pitting unbeaten champions Errol Spence Jr. and Terence “Bud” Crawford at the T-Mobile Arena. “You are watching greatness (in the person of Inoue), in his absolute prime … That’s the best fighter in the world right now.”

Added Bradley: “I never thought that the boxing world would bring another Manny Pacquiao type of person. But when you look at Inoue, how he’s traveled up these distances (he’s now a four-division world champion, from 108 pounds to his current – for now — 122), I feel like he can travel up as many weight classes as he likes.”

And this, from Kriegel: “I don’t know what’s going to happen Saturday night, but I do know that right now there is a best fighter in the world, and it’s that man right there, Inoue. (Fulton was) an undefeated fighter, a master boxer, a versatile guy, and (Inoue) made him look ordinary.”

In an era where indisputably special matchups of elite fighters are all too rare, this was Christmas in July week for fight fans famished for the sort of pairings that brought, first, Inoue (now 25-0, 22 KOs) and Fulton (21-1, 8 KOs) together and, in a few days, IBF/WBA/WBC 147-pound champ Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) and WBO titlist Crawford (39-0, 30 KOs). But it is perhaps the bruised knuckle incurred by Inoue in training in May that not only made this diamond-tinged double-dip in the same five-day period possible, but considerably raised the stakes for the welterweight kingpins who now might feel obliged to try to match or even exceed the bravura performance turned in by the little Japanese dynamo. It can be argued that Inoue might already have vaulted past not only the winner of that fight, but fellow pound-for-pound aspirant Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs), who defends his IBF, WBA and WBO straps against Daniel Dubois (19-1, 18 KOs) on Aug. 26 in Wroclas, Poland.

Had Inoue squared off against Fulton in May and done precisely what he did Tuesday morning (in the Eastern time zone in America) or Tuesday night (10 p.m. start time in Tokyo), the passage of time might have somewhat lessened the impact of that bout. But now, the manner in which he accomplished that triumph has been elevated to a “Can you top this?” gauntlet flung at the feet of Spence and Crawford, both of whom have insisted that the winner of their much-anticipated showdown almost certainly will have to be anointed as the fight’s game’s unrivaled No. 1 guy.

“It’s the furthest thing from what either guy can be thinking, but how can Spence and Crawford top that?” Kriegel asked, rhetorically.

Well, maybe it would be too much to ask of either superstar welterweight to be more dominant on Saturday night than was Inoue, but nobody will care much if each at least tries to score a comparable grade in an effort to look especially impressive. Of such give-and-take matchups are great fights made, and, let’s face it, some of those pairings in the past have been closer to exercises in tedium than rip-roaring action-fests.

“I have so much admiration for Bud Crawford and Errol Spence. I think the world of those two guys,” Tessitore confessed. “But when I think of the pound-for-pound list … What this guy (Inoue) does for his size, I don’t care. That’s the best fighter in the world right there.

“In a week that is a fight fan’s dream, this is how it starts, with `The Monster,’ Naoya Inoue, making it look easy. That’s what’s so mind-blowing. He goes up in weight against The Guy, the unified champion, and he made it look ridiculously easy.”

You’d never know it from the way he dispatched Fulton, but not every fight involving Inoue has seen him win in a romp. One distinguishing characteristic of the best of the best is the capacity to dig deep and find something within yourself that can turn a potential defeat into a display of inner strength that separates the merely talented from those who have a champion’s dogged refusal to yield to adversity. Just such an acid test was required of Inoue on Nov. 17, 2019, when he took on future Hall of Famer Nonito Donaire in the Fight of the Year, recognized as such by this publication, by The Ring magazine and by the Boxing Writers Association of America. Inoue won by unanimous decision, but in doing so he suffered a broken orbital bone and a broken nose.

It should be noted that in Inoue’s rematch with Donaire, on June 7, 2022, he had a much easier time of it in winning on a second-round stoppage, but “The Monster” having been pushed to the limit in their first fight caused Fulton’s fellow Philly fighter, Jaron “Boots” Ennis, to go with his homeboy on Tuesday because, hey, how impressive can it be for someone supposedly so dominant to squeak past a “45-year-old” guy, as Ennis said in disparaging Donaire, who was then 37.

The truest way of gauging ring greatness, Kriegel allowed, is when a great fighter meets and defeats another great fighter, and by most means of measurement inside the ropes Fulton belonged in that exclusive club. It certainly would seem that he is better than the WBA/IBF 122-pound titlist, Marlon Tapales of the Philippines, who appears to be next on Inoue’s dance card, possibly for the fully unified title, before the end of 2023. But Tapales (37-3, 19 KOs), who entered the ring to pose with Inoue for photos, not only has lost three times, but he has been knocked out twice. Figure him to be another way station on Inoue’s upward ascent to literally bigger and presumably better things.

Can the winner of Spence-Crawford do enough to supplant Inoue as boxing’s man of the moment, and of the foreseeable future? It’s entirely possible, but that fighter would have to be nearly flawless to make that deep of an impression. How could he be anything less to climb past someone whom Tessitore said has “a viper’s striking speed and nearly flawless punching technique,” someone hailed by Joe as “the most complete offensive fighter in the game today,” and mostly excellent on defense as well.

For what it’s worth, my personal scorecard had Inoue winning all seven completed rounds for a 70-63 edge going into the eighth, which he would have won by 10-7 had not referee Hector Afu stepped in after Fulton went down for the second time, after an elapsed time of just one minute and 14 seconds. So also check the box for finishing instincts as far as it applies to Inoue, who clearly knows what to do when he gets his man in trouble.

Like the ESPN+ broadcast crew said, it’s back to you, Errol and Bud. You have a tough act to follow.

Bernard Fernandez, named to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the Observer category with the Class of 2020, was the recipient of numerous awards for writing excellence during his 28-year career as a sports writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. Fernandez’s first book, “Championship Rounds,” a compendium of previously published material, was released in May of last year. The sequel, “Championship Rounds, Round 2,” with a foreword by Jim Lampley, is currently out. His third boxing anthology, “Championship Rounds, Round 3,” is now out and available from Amazon and other book-selling outlets.

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Japan’s Little Monster Has Too Much Firepower for Stephen Fulton

Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Published

2 days ago

May 4, 2025

David A. Avila

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Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.

Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.

“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.

Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.

After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.

Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.

One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”

Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.

“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”

Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.

A real fight was happening.

Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.

Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.

In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.

“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”

Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.

In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.

“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”

Espinoza Wins

WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.

“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.

Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.

Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.

It was Espinoza’s third title defense.

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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

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2 days ago

May 4, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.

The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.

The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.

Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.

Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.

A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.

In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.

Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.

Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.

In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.

Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.

Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.

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Canelo Alvarez Upends Dancing Machine William Scull in Saudi Arabia

Published

3 days ago

May 3, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who has acquired a new nickname – “The Face of Boxing” – is accustomed to fighting on Cinco De Mayo weekend, but this year was different. For the first time, Canelo was fighting outside the continent of North America and entering the ring at an awkward hour. His match with William Scull started at 6:30 on a Sunday morning in Riyadh.

In the opposite corner was 32-year-old William Scull, an undefeated (23-0) Cuban by way of Germany, whose performance was better suited to “Dancing With the Stars” than to a world title fight. Constantly bouncing from side to side but rarely letting his hands go, Scull frustrated Canelo who found it near-impossible to corner him, but one can’t win a fight solely on defense and the Mexican superstar was returned the rightful winner in a bout that was a fitting cap to a desultory two days of Saudi-promoted prizefighting. The scores were 115-113, 116-112, and 119-109. In winning, Canelo became a fully unified super middleweight champion twice over.

Terence Crawford was in attendance and HE Turki Alalshikh made it official: Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) will meet in the Fight of the Century (Alalshikh’s words) on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas at the home of the city’s NFL team, the Raiders. For whatever it’s worth, each of Canelo’s last seven fights has gone the full 12 rounds.

Semi-wind-up

In a match between the WBC world cruiserweight title-holder and the WBC world cruiserweight “champion in recess” (don’t ask), the former, Badou Jack, brought some clarity to the diadem by winning a narrow decision over Noel Mikaelian. One of the judges had it a draw (114-114), but the others gave the fight to “Jack the Ripper” by 115-113 scores.

A devout Muslim who is now a full-time resident of Saudi Arabia, the Sweden-born Jack, a three-division title-holder, had the crowd in his corner. Now 41 years old, he advanced his record to 29-3-3 (17). It was the first pro loss for Mikaelian (27-1), a Florida-based Armenian who was subbing for Ryan Rozicki.

The distracted CompuBox operator credited Mikaelian with throwing 300 more punches but there was no controversy.

Tijuana’s Jaime Munguia, a former junior middleweight title-holder, avenged his shocking loss to Bruno Sarace with a unanimous 12-round decision in their rematch. This was Munguia’s first fight with Eddy Reynoso in his corner. The scores were 117-111 and 116-112 twice.

Surace’s one-punch knockout of Munguia in mid-December in Tijuana was the runaway pick for the 2024 Upset of the Year. Heading in, Munguia was 44-1 with his lone defeat coming at the hands of Canelo Alvarez. Munguia had won every round against Surace before the roof fell in on him.

Surace won a few rounds tonight, but Munguia was the busier fighter and landed the cleaner shots. It was the first pro loss for Surace (26-1-2) and ended his 23-fight winning streak. The Frenchman hails for Marseilles.

Heavyweights

In a 10-round heavyweight match fought at a glacial pace, Martin Bakole (21-2-1) and Efe Ajagba (20-1-1) fought to a draw. One of the judges favored Ajagba 96-94 but he was outvoted by his cohorts who each had it 95-95.

Bakole, a 7/2 favorite, came in at 299 pounds, 15 more than he carried in his signature win over Jared Anderson, and looked sluggish. He was never able to effectively close off the ring against the elusive Ajagba who fought off his back foot and failed to build on his early lead.

The fight between the Scotch-Congolese campaigner Bakole and his Nigerian-American foe was informally contested for the heavyweight championship of Africa. That “title” remains vacant.

In a 6-rounder, heavy-handed Cuban light heavyweight Brayon Leon, a stablemate of Canelo Alvarez, was extended the distance for the first time while advancing his record to 7-0 at the expense of Mexico’s Aaron Roche (11-4-1). Leon knocked Roche to the canvas in the fourth round with a right-left combination, but the Mexican stayed the course while eating a lot of hard punches.

Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry Promotions

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