Do you still think Inoue vs Nakatani will be competitive after their last fights?

MJ is the real deal but not going to lie, Picasso is pretty weak and Inoue didn’t look good even though he dominated to his standard. I’m hoping he just had an off night but it’s possible he’s starting to decline. I can’t imagine the Inoue that fought Fulton would have allowed it to go 12. Also idk if Inoue just fights way better at home.

 

What are you talking about? They were both highly ranked fighters. We just watched the number seven ranked guy push Nakatani to the brink, and he was on the P4P list. If anything that should tell us these guys are being slept on, because people only watch their fights against Inoue and he makes them look worse than they are. It’s like if you only watched Dubois fight Usyk and saying he’s an amateur based on that one fight.

Shakur dropped more rounds against Zepeda than Inoue did against MJ and Picasso combined.

 

I think the fight will be a competitive affair but that Inoue will be sharper than usual, and will simply have too many tools for Nakatani to deal with the further it goes. Junto's lack of a real, hard jab is going to hurt him, since Inoue is very good at using hand-fighting against southpaws to open up the lane for his left hook. I think Inoue is going to try and box more, circling to his left and pumping the jab, since Nakatani (despite being a converted southpaw iirc), is mostly reliant on landing his overhand left and left uppercut more than his jab and right hook. If Inoue circles to his left and forces Nakatani to throw his left hand awkwardly across his own body, then he should be able to negate the risk of the overhand left which he was caught by against Nery and Cardenas, since Junto won't be able to generate power if he's constantly having to reset. I assume the Akhmadaliev fight was groundwork for Junto, since the cautious boxing and avoidance of exchanges we saw there is the same strategy which I think will work best against Nakatani. I think it will be a close fight though, where Nakatani will have his moments and give Inoue a few scares but that Inoue will pick his spots and outbox Nakatani at range and counter him on the way in.

 

I think inoue stops him before the 8th rd. junto is not fast, but he has very good timing, that's how he is able to land that somewhat telegraphed left he connects so effectively. but inoue is very good at afjusting mid motion, so he isnt going to get hit by that left, like others have. i also dont think junto has the durability to stay with inoue into the late rds. there is nothing junto is going to show inoue that he hasnt seen before, while junto has never faced anyone in inoues league. i think the difference in speed will be apparent right from the get go, both in firing off shots and reacting to them. i really dont think it will even look particularly close before the stoppage.