Twenty-fourth of January in Kōtō-ku. Inoue will defend the IBF and WBA super bantamweight titles each for a third time, and the WBO and WBC titles for a fourth each. YJK - a fortnight's notice substitute for IBF & WBO mandatory contender Sam Goodman after eye injuries once again forced the undefeated Aussie to withdraw - is currently not, and to my knowledge has never been, ranked top 15 by any major org. A stoppage victory here would place the champion just one shy of reaching the 90% threshold for the first time since his rookie year. He's currently at 89.29% and the go-ahead with 26 of 29 wins by KO would be 89.65%. If you're looking for reasons to be guardedly optimistic about the South Korean's chances - he is a natural super bantam / feather (not that such was really much help to Fulton, or Nery, or Doheny), and can switch-hit (as far as I can work out, the logic behind the bizarre nickname "Pacquiweather" seems to be 1) that he's from Asia, can fight southpaw, and sometimes fights aggressively while he 2) occasionally uses a shoulder roll ) - and, to date in his pro career, has never been stopped or indeed even dropped. Even grasping at those straws, however, it's difficult to see aught but a swift & violent summary execution in the ring this coming Friday.
Inoue vs. Terence John Doheny: This content is protected Kim vs. Robert Darnell Tompkins Diezel: This content is protected
Lemino Boxing in Japan will have full show coverage from 1:20pm local time in Tokyo / 6:20am GMT / 1:20am EST. ESPN+ will carry only the co-main (Sasaki vs. Sakai) and main event, from 4:15pm local / 9:15am GMT / 4:15am EST
I accidentally chose Draw in the poll, can it be removed so I can choose Inoue to win by knockout, thanks in advance...
I am genuinely curious if anyone thinks Kim has even a shred of a chance of winning this. It's boxing so anything can happen in theory, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Kim will give a half-decent account before getting bull-dozed but I do wanna know if anybody believes Kim can pull off the upset.