Naoya Inoue vs. Marlon Tanan Tapales & Seiya Tsutsumi vs. Kazuki Anaguchi RBR.

No way Tapales won more than 2 rounds. And those 2 rounds were close and could have easily gone Inoues way.

Inoue did seem a little too trigger happy with the right hand and didn’t show enough variety to my liking but it seems like those right hands broke Tapales down. A fight against Rigo would have been interesting as that southpaw shoulder roll seemed to give him issues landing.

 

Inoue seemed to think he could KO Tapales any time he wanted to. That isn't an ideal mindset.

 

Tapales was very disciplined. Tight guard and didn't let Inoue run all over him.

Inoue thought he could KO Tapales any time he wanted to. Stinkin thinkin. So could have been better, mentally.

 

I wouldn't go quite that far, but he was definitely more durable than Inoue thought; I fully believe he expected to get the finish in the 5th after dropping him in the 4th, and had to mentally reset after he didn't get it.

 

Do we though?

 

Slow-mo replay of the Tapales KO from a different angle. You can clearly see it landing on Tapales temple through the guard

This content is protected

 

He gave Tapales a dizzy right on the temple.

 

Ya some idiots online were crying a fix because it wasn't so clear cut live & they didn't replay it from all angles on TV but from this angle you can see that he scrambled Tapales equilibrium with that temple shot

 

Watched it late lucky as i forgot about it altogether, glad it didn't get ruined, felt bad for Tapales but he's just missing in many of the categories needed to compete on a level with Inoue,

Inoue did well & took some concerning hard shots glad he is okay, so humble impressive.

 

Where is the Bro Joker??

I wonder what his thoughts are on this matchup, in fact he must be on Cloud nine.

 

That happens all the time

 

Tapales fought very flat footed tonight unlike Fulton who was rabbit hopping all over the place, to think what a difference.

 

Sanman forever!

 

Was thinking the same thing, good to see him looking well, the gold standard was in place.

 

Inoue was much more cut up & trimmed in his fight with Fulton, tonight it looked like he really settled into the weight division had a good balance of mass & being ripped.