Harada easily. Inoues career isn't even over yet. You can't even use power as a factor, as he fought Jofre, Medel and went up to feather.
Harada. Unfortunately for Inoue there's nobody as good as Jofre around. If he beats Loma I might change my mind.
This thread will look bonkers if Donaire upsets Inoue. It's a shame that Inoue isn't facing the Donaire who unified against Montiel actually, that would've been some fight.
Harada was a fantastic fighter ,Inoue is ,,,,well not nearly as proven. This fight would be like Zamora when he ran into Carlos Zarate
I think the Donaire of 2009 would've beaten Inoue. It'd shut a few people up nicely if old man Nonito manages to put the clappers on the Inoue hype train though.
Inoues a real talent in my opinion. He's awesome at reading the shots, aswell as that power. Donaire was a monster though, and I always like seeing an old workhorse win. Looking forward to November. I'd also suggest, if you've got time, looking at some of Inoues amateur bouts. Very interesting.
@roughdiamond Inoue is formidable but I think more for his speed and power rather than his overall skill set, which is relatively basic by world class standards. He has decent feet and balance though and turns his punches over excellently. Solid shot selection, especially to set up his left to the body and has all the punches but is fairly straight ahead in his approach imo, though quick off the mark and fairly accurate to compensate. Paws a bit with his jab. Not a counterpuncher or punch slipper and a fairly straight up easy to hit target with the earmuffs on. He's a bit deceptive though, can seemingly switch from being a bit plodding, sloppy and predictable to more surgeon-like very quickly and obviously with good speed and crushing power. He reminds me a bit of Moon tbh, has that same natural rhythm and timing despite a fairly simple approach. His chin has looked good so far too.
I have to disagree with you a bit on his defense. Though he seems to leave his chin in the air at times, he's looked very good Slipping and riding punches minimally IMO. He is much more of a 'slip and slider' and distance manipulator though. Though he seemed to show this much more at Super Fly and below than Bantam, where he remains solid and doesn't use his feet nearly as much. I agree with you about the earmuffs / highguard, though I think he used it to ride shots very well. He's not exactly static when he guards. His feet however have seemed much more rooted at 118, though he hasn't really needed to be fleet footed. I think he has some solid countering, though as you said it's not preferred by him. He'd rather be on top and dominate the opponent. He's never truly been backed up in his career if he didn't want it. I'd be interested to see if Donaire can (or attempts to). Interestingly, the best counter Inoue seems to regularly use, as left hook as the opponent throws a right, followed by a nasty right uppercut, was taught to him by Hideyuki Ohashi, who is his backer. He's surprised quite a few opponents with it. He's also great at splitting a high guard with punches (right to the belly, side / liver shots) even though he employs one himself. I agree that Inoue is definitely a natural timer and fighter. I really think he is a special fighter, though this hype won't sound so good if he loses to Donaire lol. Still, he has a LOT to prove before being mentioned in the same breath as Harada. Honestly, it's probably unachievable of a Japanese fighter to compare, though if anyone did it would probably be Inoue. Hell, I'd say Inoue has quite a bit to do before being mentioned with Hasegawa etc.
I think the minimalistic slipping and riding a bit with the punches is what he tries to sometimes do. He's always shifting his upper body with punches a bit, but I'm not sure he has the defensive radar or reflexes to be genuinely good at it. That was why I said fairly tbh. Like you say, I've seen him slip punches and counter sometimes but yeah, definitely more of a range controller type. My worry, if you can call it that, is that I do think he gets hit and his opposition hasn't been great so far imo. Carrying off that defensive approach against better fighters is harder and riskier for most. I agree that he's more flat footed at bantam too. I haven't watched much of Donaire post-Walters other than the Frampton fight tbh so can't comment too much on their fight. Donaire in his prime was similar to me in that his speed, power and form were tremendous but he was fairly pedestrian in terms of his overall range of skills. A very good counter-puncher but slow of foot where Inoue is the opposite, but Donaire needed the openings to come more of there own volition than being able to create them. You sort of touched upon what I meant when I said Inoue can turn surgeon like very quickly with the left hook counter off the straight right (Old Bones!) and splitting a guard from nowhere with accurate shots, he catches people out a bit after previously throwing fairly routine, predictable shots. I do rate him highly overall but hype around a fighter always irks me mostly because it's usually premature and most inevitably fall short of expectations. Donaire himself was the same ten years ago, though a very good/excellent and dangerous fighter overall. Inoue is an example I've seen used quite often to justify all eras being equal (they aren't) but I want to see how his career unfolds because he could be great by the end of it.
