2014 Fighter of the Year: Naoya "Monster" Inoue

Convert made! :happy Too bad you had voted already before that. :yep

 

Yeah man, it sucks that he's so under the international coverage radar that his great year slipped in between the cracks for even guys like you that generally know your stuff about the sport.

The guys who run AsianBoxing.info can be a little heavy-handed with their "Western media is the devil" message (going as far sometimes, it seems, as to imply that most North & South American/British/German boxers of note are overrated and only hyped because of regional favoritism) but they do have a point that many great talents in the Orient go largely unnoticed in the Occident and that we don't get a fair and balanced view just taking our major networks at their word that guys they push as the mainstream stars truly represent the best of the best globally.


Monster vs. Ahas would've been a huge test and had the potential to be nearly as big a statement for Inoue as Narváez was, if he got the KO. The window has probably closed on that one, now, though. Inoue won't be looking back down in weight for anything short of a Gonzalez or Estrada type payday - and Nietes is pretty firmly entrenched at light fly. He jumped around in weight early in his career but has since become a lot more consistent, spending five years straight at straw and the last four at light fly...and his frame wouldn't really support venturing up into bantam territory IMO. (he looked really small opposite Fuentes)

 

Of course. Nobody over here even knows who Yamanaka is.

 

:good

Mea culpa, they should not even be on the poll.

I was just being diplomatic to prevent trolls overtaking my thread and whining about it.

 

Yup. I'd consider it only worth slightly less credit than his destruction of Narváez. Very close, especially since Nietes is still near his prime and Narváez has been hanging on relying on his penchant for epic late-stage comebacks, but still clearly not quite what he was some years back.

Nietes has been a very consistent and solid guy, quietly, also getting no attention in the West.

I'm guessing they were hesitant to buy into the Inoue hype just yet, or were yet to be convinced, and considered a defeat like that at the hands of such an inexperienced foe a little more embarrassing than Fuentes doing so much worse in the rematch. :conf

:nod