Japan’s Sensational Little Monster KOs Butler to Unify the 118-pound Title

Today in Tokyo, Japan, Naoya Inoue achieved his dream of becoming the first Japanese fighter to become an undisputed world champion in the four-belt era with an 11^th-round stoppage of England’s defensively-minded Paul Butler. Inoue, nicknamed “The Monster,” entered the contest holding the WBA, WBC, and IBF bantamweight belts. Butler was the WBO title-holder.

The fight was waived off at the 1:09 mark of Round 11 after Inoue scored the fight’s lone knockdown, trapping Butler in a corner and sending him to the canvas with a volley of punches. A body punch, Inoue’s specialty, launched the sequence. To that point, Inoue had won every round. Butler, who was making his first start outside England, fought a survivor’s fight. At various times during the contest, Inoue taunted him, playing to the crowd.

“The Monster,” who improved to 24-0 (21 KOs), entered the contest ranked #1 on several pound-for-pound lists. He was a massive favorite over Butler (34-3) who won his belt outside the ring when the WBO got fed up with the shenanigans of John Riel Casimero who twice backed out of fights with mandatory challenger Butler on the week of the scheduled fight. Twelve days prior to being upgraded to a full title-holder, Butler outpointed Jonas Sultan, a Filipino who was 18-5 heading in and took the fight on three days’ notice. The Englishman, 34, was applauded for accepting this assignment when he could have chosen a softer opponent for his first defense.

Inoue, who had previously won titles in two lower weight classes, has signaled his intention to move up to 122 and pursue a unified title in that weight class. The current title-holders at 122 are Philadelphia’s Stephen Fulton (21-0, 8 KOs) the WBC/WBO champion and Uzbekistan’s Murodjon Akhmadaliev (11-0, 8 KOs) who holds the WBA and IBF belts.

It was a great night overall for fighters from Yokohama as two of Nayoa Inoue’s stablemates retained their regional title belts.

Super lightweight Andy Hiraoka scored an eighth-round TKO over South Korea’s Min Hu Jung (13-4-2) and super bantamweight Yoshiki Takei scored an 11^th-round TKO over Australian-Tanzanian Bruno Tarimo (26-4-2).

Takei (6-0, 6 KOs) is a former kickboxing champion. Hiraoka, who is Ghanaian on his father’s side (he met Andy’s Japanese mother in Florida) improved to 22-0 (17 KOs).

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