good vid, i agree with all your points. as you said, saturdays fight is no indication of how bam will fight inoue. his approach will be more like it was vs rungvisai, the bigger more powerful puncher. obviously inoue wont be as easy, but bam has also improved since then. i think they should use their next fights to build up the hype for the eventual showdown. let the world know how rare it is for 2 guys at this level to meet. make it the biggest fight below feather of all time. i still favor bam, who i can see has all the skill to deal with inoue, but his size may not be enough if inoue manages to get him in trouble. i dont see inoue outboxing bam, so he will have to stop bam to beat him, which isnt out of the question given his advantage in size, reach and power. either way, bam isnt suppose to beat inoue, so if he were to pull it off it would instantly place him atop all the p4p lists. just like i said it would happen years ago.
We are what we consistently do. Bam took a lot of punches he simply didn't have to going for a "statement" Sure most believe he wouldn't against Inoue but he did against Vargas and was rewarded. I think with Bam being young and being rewarded for his machismo and knockout with an Inoue fight leads him into too many unforced errors and getting knocked out cold against the monster.
There isn't an ideal time for this one to happen. 33 to 26 is a heck of an age gap for the little guys. When they do meet (likely next year), the narratives will be Naoya's arguable yet inevitable decline vs. Bam's inexperience at 122. If Naoya can resummon what he brought against Nakatani, I only see one winner. Too good at controlling the distance. Too quick. Bam will be denied his angles. Plus the power will force him - as it did with MJ, Picasso, and Nakatani for many rounds - to fight overly conservative. All hinges on what the next year or so/training camps take from the Japanese.