What should Inoue do next after Fulton? If he wins, he's beaten the pretty clear consensus #1 in the division. Does he instantly move to 126 or stick around at 122 for mop up duty? The famous names are more at 115 than 126, would any of them make the jump to 122 or could Inoue be lured back down to 118? Since he's working with Showtime, is there any chance we see something goofy like a match-up with GRJ or LSC?
He needs to fight Akhmadliev at 122 to become Undisputed. I would like to see him fight the likes of Sunny Edwards and Jesse Rodriguez too to add to the resume but it looks like they will be too far apart in weight. He would then surely move up to 126. I think though he'll struggle at 126 and above. I see him beating everyone at 122 but struggling a lot more than his previous fights.
Inoue's never going back down to 118 again. I don't think he can physically make 118 anymore. And even then, he was ducked by Chocolatito and Estrada has shown zero interest in fighting Inoue aside from the occasional name drop. Bam going back down in weight says to me that he's taken the road that leads to anywhere but Inoue (hilarious since he said a year and a half ago that he wanted Inoue and would KO him in one round). If Inoue loses to Fulton, he should try to fight MJ immediately or rebuild his way to that fight or a rematch with Fulton. But he should absolutely try to become Undisputed. I dunno about any higher than 122 right now, but I think he would have destroyed Nav the other night.
"We have, a hundred percent, no problem with [an Akhmadaliev-Inoue] fight. You know, if the Fulton fight [with Inoue] didn’t happen, we’d make the MJ fight [with Inoue] right now. But if the Fulton fight [against Inoue] is to happen, which is a great fight, we’ll complete undisputed with Akhmadaliev against Inoue, no problem.” “Ultimately, Arum won’t want Inoue to come off ESPN. So, if they pay enough money, we have no problem [with the fight on ESPN]. Akhmadaliev is a star, but not a massive star at DAZN. It’s not Canelo Alvarez. So, [DAZN] would be happy if we were happy and, most importantly, MJ was happy. He would have absolutely no problem fighting Inoue. It would be a tremendous fight, Akhmadaliev against Inoue."
I didn't knew chocolatito ducked Inoue, what happened with that? On topic, Unify. He plans to retire early right? getting all the belts asap is the goal.
Inoue's team was pursuing the fight and HBO was building the fight up. Inoue was the chief support on a Roman card in his American debut. Roman turned down the fight saying he wanted more money.
Should he beat Fulton I'd love to see Inoue stay at 122 and continue to defend the belt. It's a weight he should be comfortable with for a couple of years. The present climate in boxing seems to be that winning all four belts is the goal. It should not be that way. A boxer isn't necessarily great because he won all the belts he's just finally the undisputed champion. The goal should be to defend that title and those championships. Mayweather, Pacquiao and De La Hoya and even Inoue are all great fighters but I can't say that any of them are in the top ten at a particular weight class. I'm not even sure I'd know what weight class would be the one that would be where they should be rated. I realize that this is because boxers no longer make their normal boxing weight. They weight drain and go as low as they can. Then they move up a couple years later and then do it again a year or two after that. For Inoue, 122 seems like the proper weight. I hope he stays there.
He’s gonna retire. 30 is getting on for a little guy like Inoue an if he beats Fulton, he will be a 4 weight champ an as hard to believe as it is, he’s been a pro for over 10 years. It’s gonna be all downhill from here on so it’s perfect time to retire.
I think I read somewhere that he said he wants to retire at 35. Pandemic really took away some great years from Inoue.
He should definitely end the road at 122, but it depends. If he blows out Fulton and MJ impressively, maybe he can try for 126.
Yeah a guy like him should have been fighting about 4 or at the very least 3 times a year. Seems to be a norm for heavyweights who tend to peak at a later age, to only fight twice a year but little lighter weight fighters like Inoue at the peak of his powers should be fighting more than that.
Let him at least unify and grow into 122 before moving up another division. Loma can still make 126 so that might be a mouthwatering fight between ATGs.
