Naoya "El Monstruo de Japón/The 1.65m Godzilla/怪物 (Kaibutsu/Monster)" Inoue - acknowledge him!

Bear witness. The current WBC & WBO super bantamweight champion of the world is the greatest thing and most sublimely beautiful destructive force coming off Kanagawa since the Great Wave (or at least since the famous ukiyo-e woodblock print inspired by it).

Seriously, there have been a slew of threads made about him at this point over the past decade-plus. I've produced some glowing hagiographies of my own ("Y'all must've forgot about the 118lb Monster in the room...Naoya Inoue knocking on the p4p door." at more or less exactly the halfway mark between his pro debut and the present, 5 years plus a few months in either direction...and nearly a decade ago: 2014 Fighter of the Year: Naoya "Monster" Inoue) as have, notably, @CST80 (Naoya Inoue: The Monster Of Kanagawa-Godzilla Inoue The Flyweight Yokohama Juggernaut), the many alter-egos of @JOKER (our resident quick-and-dirty hype mill; points for enthusiasm spamming the forum with dozens of Inoue threads each year, but each OP usually contains a lean paragraph or two, and none of them is exactly Ibsen ), and others.

Perhaps even all that praise has been too faint - or at least, too narrow in scope. We keep asking shortsighted questions like "can he conquer the next division up?" instead of sitting back and taking a holistic look at the already monumental body of work and the implications of it. His performances are scintillating to watch and he makes good, tough fighters look frail and oafish. This can lead to us forgetting that Inoue has compiled a hell of a résumé while leaving a trail of carnage from light fly through bantam, and he's only thirty.

It may be time we start considering that we are living through a special time, one that future generations may envy the way some of us do a select few ATG names from the past. There's a real possibility we are seeing an historic run by a fighter that will be considered top 5 all time sub-feather h2h (of course he isn't lingering in any one division for long enough to go down as "greater" than its brightest luminaries, but it gets harder and harder to pick against him in fantasy match-ups, from 108lbs through 122) - and lots of data to support this claim.

To start with there is his blistering speed & power, there for all to see on ample video evidence and backed up by the numbers. Of course an 88% kayo rate doesn't automatically mean all that much without context, but the context here is that every pro bout since his sixth has been for a world title, with a total championship mark of 20-0 (18). Most titlists under featherweight are lucky to cobble together four of what might be considered "decent" victories over world ranked and respected opposition; this kid managed to run through probably a dozen to date.

As of this very morning Inoue has fought 146 rounds professionally, and lost maybe half a dozen. Two each, on my card, to: Donaire in their first encounter, Taguchi, and maybe Carmona but his only really clear frame was R8 tbh so the sum total of lost rounds could be as low as five. He lost zero rounds IMO (and my opinion cleaves very closely to acclamation from the professional judges throughout his career) to:

Crison Omayao (three complete rounds, KO4), Bunnam Thammakhun (n/a, KO1), Yuki Sano (nine complete rounds, officially a shutout on the cards, TKO10), Jerson Mancio (four complete rounds, shutout on the cards, TKO5), Adrián Hernández (five complete rounds, shutout on the cards, TKO6), Wittawas Basapean (ten complete rounds, shutout on the cards, TKO11), Omar Andrés Narváez (one complete round, a 10-7 for Inoue, KO2), Warlito Parrenas (one complete round, KO2), Karoon Jarupianlerd (nine complete rounds, shutout on two cards, KO10), Kōhei Kōno (five complete rounds, shutout on the cards, TKO6), Ricardo Rodríguez (two complete rounds, shutout on the cards, KO3), Antonio Nieves (six complete rounds, shutout on the cards, RTD6), Yoan Boyeaux (two complete rounds, one a 10-8, TKO3), Jamie McDonnell (n/a, TKO1), Juan Carlos Payano, (n/a, KO1), Emmanuel Rodríguez Vázquez (one complete round, close but clear for Inoue, KO2), Jason Moloney (six complete round, KO7), Michael Dasmariñas (two complete rounds, one a 10-8, KO3), Aran Dipaen (ten complete rounds, KO11), Paul Butler, or Stephon Fulton (seven complete rounds, TKO8).

24 unique opponents, of which three men actually managed to bag at least one complete round off him (and even there, only a small handful between them). 87.5% failed to do so.

140/146 is good for a 96% rounds-won percentage. That is bat-shite. Not even Floyd Mayweather, Jr. had that.

This, going along with a 92.5% rate of victory in the amateurs in a campaign that for all its brevity (less than seven dozen matches, nineteen away from cracking triple digits as most of the "amateur greats" have done at minimum) was by no means unimpressive. Basically all his defeats - five of the six - were in the medaling stages of international tourneys.

Since turning over, Inoue has remained loyal to his early benefactors, Ohashi Promotions. Chūjitsu personified, baby! As if his buzzsaw style and explosivity weren't already going to endear him to countrymen and make him a domestic megastar:

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None of titular nicknames are of my own making, btw. All have long established media usage across multiple outlets in both his native Japan and in Latin America, where he is also hugely popular (small wonder, as he is the premier active practitioner of the punch most beloved of Mexicans, especially, the liver hook).

Really he's in the running for "best execution in the sport" for all his punches, and he showed the full suite just hours ahead of my writing this, when he thrashed "Scooter" Fulton to become Japan's third ever four-weight champion (and, while I'm the biggest Ioka fanboy you'll meet and would pick him quixotically if they ever met, even knowing he was probably doomed, Inoue's accomplishment carries the added bonus of becoming the nation's first to be unified in two divisions).

I was led to believe that him pitching a shutout against Fulton may be in jeopardy - hanging on the fulcrum 7th round, which starts here:

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I have to say, Fulton only landed three significant punches to my eye all round. A minute or so in, the big one (a quick looping right off several throwaway jabs into the guard), another overhand right later in the round and one flush jab near the bell to end it. All this is dwarfed by Inoue's own work. The body jab, liver hook, check hook up top, and two shots notwithstanding, mostly immaculate defense throughout - either slipping Fulton's jabs or swallowing them with his forearms.

This is what I posted in the RBR immediately following the KO today:

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Being both an A+ boxer and an A+++ puncher seems unfair - but that is the reality we are confronted with. My hunch is that history is going to be very kind to Inoue, and that he's going to wow us several more times yet in ways that made the Fulton domination seem ho-hum.



This isn't his best victory to date, but was the "biggest", in more ways than one. Time we stop pretending this little monster isn't a big deal.

Really, if you are still in the year 2023 sleeping on Inoue being the absolute p4p truth, well that's just straight hatin' - and makes you look more & more foolish with each passing day.

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Ya boy saves his best threads for the best fighters.

 

Inoue puts Fury to sleep.

 

A writer for Ring Magazine opined that Fulton was faster.

(meaning his feet, but still... )

https://www.ringtv.com/656159-darin...ion-on-the-stephen-fulton-naoya-inoue-clash/#

 

By the way, I highly recommend viewing Inoue fights with live Spanish commentary. Latino boxing fans and pundits alike truly appreciate "Godzilla de 1,65 Metros"/"El Monstruo de Japón" and call his matches with an enthusiasm reserved usually for their own biggest homegrown warriors, or globally important soccer games.

 

Just you wait - he'll announce plans to move to 126lbs and the ones determined to stick their fingers in their ears and la-la-la their way through his career will swear that Figueroa is going to crush him.