The only people who care about 122 and below are the hardcore boxing fans. Its rarely televised on major networks and if they are they are the undercard. Remember Gonzalez had to piggyback off of Golovkin every fight? There is no legacy or money to be made below Featherweight. Who is he trying to fool by fighting a 36 year old Bantamweight? Remember Barrera didnt become a legend or star until Featherweight. He became an icon almost immediately after he moved up. Pacquiao in his last fight at 122 pounds was still unknown. Manny Steward said during the fight that Pacquiao was the best p4p fighter in the world. Anybody with two working eyeballs could have told you that. But nobody was watching those fights with any interest. So nobody cared. Guess what though? In his very first fight at Featherweight he showed everybody that Steward was right. The guy was the best p4p fighter in the world. The rest is history. Inoue needs to take his ass up to 126. And fight somebody like Gary Russel Jr. Or Santa Cruz. They may be little men, but they're still man sized fighters. 122 and below is the kiddie leagues. For kid sized boxers. Those too small to get in the ring with man sized fighters. Look what happened to Rigo when he left the kiddie leagues. He fought Loma and quit. Because he realized oh ****.... you mean I have to fight a grown man now? Inoue needs to stop wasting his career and get a move on up the weights.
You do realise Naoya Inoue is a massive crossover star in Japan, right? To summarise: you might not care about fighters who campaign below Featherweight, but there are plenty of people here who do.
Inoue will never be a superstar. He doesn't have a story to tell. And Japanese fighters don't have the same aspirations. It's all good. Let him dominate 122 before going up to 126.
America, not so, despite having fought there on Superfly cards. Meh, I'm sure he isn't losing any sleep over this fact.
Exactly, what about it? They rarely care about guys under 126lbs. So why rush in up just for an opportunity to shine there? Inoue doesn't need America to secure a legacy, he needs the right opponents. Right now they are at 115 and 118. 122 also has some good fights. Let Inoue do his thing. Oh, and there were talks of Top Rank wanting to sign him. Meaning his fights would be televised stateside and he would likely fighter as well.
Inoue has a very smart team behind him. They said that they would move him up if Inoue struggled even a little bit to make weight. No draining. Not even for one fight. Hence he went up 118.
