Guy is a freak. A truly wonderful fighter. I’m all for spirited debate but Inoue is in a class of his own. He’s one of the best we will ever see.
He's a bit overrated historically by many... But he is a great fighter no doubt, and he looked great in that fight... getting up off the canvas and handling business just makes it even better..
How do they do against Miguel Cotto or Antonio Margarito? Almost sounds unfair due to the size difference, I bet?
Inoue has hit a weight ceiling at 122, I think, whereas Morales started his career there, so if they fought, Erik wins. I think P4P they're on a similar level. Morales lost to some B-list fighters once he moved up too high. It's hard to pass judgment until they've both finished their careers, but Morales lost to Zahir Raheem and David Diaz once he went up too many weights. It wouldn't surprise me if Nick Ball beat Inoue because of the size and physicality, but P4P, they're nowhere near the same level.
This is why I hate comparing eras because what would be the litmus test for the JMM/MAB/Morales comparisons?. He’s destroyed every opponent faced yet someone says he couldn’t have competed with Marquez. The same Marquez that went life and death with Katsidis and Juan Diaz????? It’s no slight at Marquez but guys are holding him to a standard that even those guys couldn’t uphold. What made them great was advancing to HOF level despite vulnerabilities. When you continue to fight the best of the best across 4-5 divisions you will occasionally get hit flush or get dropped.
Been saying for a while now that Junto will cause him big problems. The betting man's money has got to be on Junto.
I mean, Inoue's still really, really good and it won't be just anyone who turns the trick on him. But, Junto's not just anyone.
You're not allowed to point out supposed p4p#1 Inoue's defensive liabilities against 100-1 underdogs because he's an "entertainer".
It’s because he’s so aggressive. He could be a lot more careful, win on the cards, but he has this thing where he thinks (probably rightfully so) that his fans want to see him score KOs, so he’s always going to go all out trying to KO opponents. He’s a showman. The opposite of the real careful guys like Shakur. It’s a combo is his general nature together with this Japanese sense of honor/obligation he feels toward fans. I saw an interview with him and it was kind of interesting. You see American, British, Mexican KO artists talk about it, they talk about enjoying KOing opponents, wanting to do it kind of as a dominance thing, etc. Inoue is like “that’s what my fans are paying to see, and I cannot let them down”. Japanese people are very… Japanese.
Anyone else noticed how threatened many fans are by sexy Asian fighters, especially Chinese and Japanese ones, who dominate or when plus-sized giants like that big sexy Chinese man Big Bang leave a trail of destruction in their wake? It's only sexy ones like Inoue and Big Bang because nobody could care less about fugly little chibi creeps like Ginjiro and Kenshiro
These takes are always tinged with the bias of nostalgia. Morales is undoubtedly a boxing great he wasn't invulnerable; for example he had a tough fight vs Chi, and he lost to Zahir Raheem. I'm not saying Inoue would or wouldn't beat Morales, but it's asinine to to suggest he wouldn't be competitive.
It's sarcasm, because people like to make an argument that Inoue was better at 118 or whatever than Manny - while ignoring the fact that Manny moved all the way to 147 and dominated world class opposition (several of who are better than just about anyone on Inoue's CV, except MAYBE 10 years past his best Donaire.....) With that said, I'm no Inoue hater, and my main point in this thread was to defend him. Getting up off the canvas is the **** champions are made of, and as others have mentioned, even great fighters have lesser performances against so-so opposition at times... It's part of the fight game.