How good could this kid be and who's he signed too? I feel like Japanese boxers have no association with anybody else.
Naoya Inoue is a sexy Japanese fella with a fashionable alt-rock mullet and pure dynamite in his fists. He's an exceptional body puncher with a very sturdy chin (so far). A- punch selection, but his defense is a little bit leaky (could also be that no opponent thus far as given him reason to respect their power). A+ body punching. Very vicious and a huge part of his game. Inoue possesses a killer instinct --- dude is genuinely excited to get you out of there if he senses that you are hurt. This could be his downfall down the line. An absolute P4P talent and special fighter. A Monster, which also is his nickname. He is promoted by Akihiko Honda of Teiken Promotions. He wants Roman badly, but Roman ain't too interested. Neither is Estrada.
That teiken gym produces some quality operators Anyone seen any footage of any training from there Linares Valero Inoue Gonzalez Never heard of a heavy come out of there though must be a gym for the little guys
Here's a little breakdown: Highly skilled, lovely body puncher, very fast, nice reflexes, he's actually impressive on the counter, good combinations. He does have a good jab too. However, you're seeing a fighter who will be a very good pro, but remember he was a top amateur. Right now you're seeing him do impressive work against pros who have no answer and comparing him to a Lomachenko who has been so focussed on his pacing strategy that he hasn't actually been THE Lomachenko just yet and won't be THE Lomachenko until he has that part of his game sorted..so you're seeing Naoya dictating the fight. HOWEVER, when he's not dictating, I see Naoya being caught out of position, I see him becoming very rash which I put down to lack of experience, but when he's rash he's not as intelligent as you'd like him to be, he has had a tendency to get hit by some big shots by Veitia and Zhakypov, right hooks being something he must learn to defend against. - When he comes forward and his opponent is throwing, he comes forward head first and keeps his hands up guarding his face but he makes himself open to hooks to the head, and gruelling body shots to the side. - He needs to improve his abilities to adapt DURING the fight, he just has all of the raw fundamentals to do so, I see a high ceiling for this guy, a very high ceiling but all of the chips must fall in the right places for that to be achieved. What strikes me about Naoya is that he seems like the type that improves a lot, and his style provides him a great scope for improvements to take place. He had a damn close fight with Yosvany Veitia, a year after losing to him 0-11 too by the way so that loss on the hindsight looks impressive, especially given that he is actually very young too. If Naoya focusses on improvement, just how he did in the amateurs, then he will be a great, great fighter as I know he will be given the lessons necessary to make him that great fighter, its up to him if he wants to take the defeatist approach and just hide behind the veil of his very, very good abilities and just soak up cheap validation wins and eventually become shopworn, or have a refreshing approach to boxing. You know as a teenager he's going to be wanting to improve, but what about when he has the £, already has a lot of 'good' wins, etc. will he bother? https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/naoya-inowhoe.503187/
