Japan’s Little Monster, Naoya Inoue, Crushes Donaire

The first fight between Naoya Inoue and Nonito Donaire was a humdinger. Inoue won a unanimous decision but took a lot of punishment including a broken orbital bone. Staged on Nov. 7, 2019, the match was the consensus Fight of the Year.

Flash forward 31 months to the rematch and it’s an entirely different story. At Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, Inoue, 29, lived up to his nickname, “Monster,” demolishing his 39-year-old Filipino rival inside two rounds. Referee Michael Griffin halted the massacre at the 1:24 mark of round two.

Inoue decked Donaire late in the opening stanza with a short right hand. He finished him off with a right-left combination. That earned Inoue (23-0, 20 KOs) the WBC world bantamweight title belt to go along with his own WBA and IBF diadems.

Heading in, Donaire (48-7) had answered the bell for 297 rounds and been stopped only once, that coming in 2014 in a featherweight contest with Nicholas Walters that ended in the sixth frame. After that mishap, he dropped back down in weight and launched new title reigns at 122 and 118.

After today’s rout, Inoue expressed an interest in unifying the bantamweight title before moving on to a higher weight class. The WBO belt is owned by England’s 33-year-old Paul Butler (33-2) who was elevated from the interim champion to the full champion after winning a unanimous decision over Jonas Sultan (18-5 heading in), a late sub for defrocked John Riel Casimero.

“The Monster” would be massive favorite over Paul Butler no matter where the bout was held.

For the record, only one Japanese fighter from the modern era has been enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, that being former bantamweight champion Masahiko “Fighting” Harada who twice defeated the great Eder Jofre. Regardless of what Naoya Inoue accomplishes going forward, there’s a plaque waiting for him in Canastota.

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