I was on pins and needles during those first three rounds. The Filipino Flash is known for landing big during exchanges... and The Monster was not reluctant when it came to obliging.
Nonito of House Donaire, first of his name, former king of the bantamweight division, breaker of faces...
If you look at the RBR in the first round I said if Inoue stays away from that left hook he'll be fine, 1 rd later, BAM got caught. Just shows how good Naoya is, to go on and win the fight clearly and also got robbed of a stoppage. Never seen a ref body block a fighter from getting to another fighter unless it was to stop the fight lmao.
It was my fight of the year by some margin. Rounds 8, 9, 10 and 11 were just incredible and the shots that both men took and in particular Donaire sent shivers down the spine. The body shot that Donaire arose from was a real crippler. He'd shown a true poker face the whole fight but man, that body shot would have taken out 99% of other fighters. Donaire showed grit, heart and determination I've rarely seen since the like of Benn vs Mclellan. Inoue is now my P4P no.1. He's shown me that he has it all, huge power, a great jab, good movement and footwork, a rock solid chin and a huge pair of bollocks. Massive respect to both warriors. Donaire can bow out with his head held high.
Not seen Taylor v programs of monster v Nointo i will run em back one free weekend Foty contenders im lead to believe
Inoue is a 112 pound fighter, for him to almost knock Donaire out is insane and of course he struggled here in there with Donaire because he's huge for 118.
Prograis vs Taylor was a cracking fight with great technical skill on display but, Inoue vs Donaire was far more dramatic
Yes. I was already really impressed with his mental fortitude to be able to maintain his composure throughout the moments of adversity and the weight of the mental pressure he must've been under even before I knew about the severity of the injuries he sustained. He's not used to his opponents being able to withstand his power like that and he could so easily have lost his composure and burnt up a lot nervous energy worrying about that, especially considering his opponent in this instance was an extremely dangerous puncher himself and he was throwing and catching him with vicious bombs of his own all night. However, he kept a cool head throughout and just kept plugging away. And obviously it's even more impressive given what we know now about him suffering a broken nose and orbital socket.
Same here. He was playing a dangerous game and some of the left hooks and right hands that grazed his chin looked like finishers and some of the ones that landed on the target did too. It was fun to watch but also definitely nerve-racking.