If Inoue were to defeat Nakatani and Rodriguez

He would have a decent case but I'd still firmly have Gomez at #1. 17 title defenses all by KO while being undefeated at the weight is extremely hard to beat.

 

Beating Bum Bum does little for him. Ball would be a much better win.

 

Beating Nakatani would have meant more before this morning but would still have value. As far as 115 lb. Bam Rodriguez or 126 lb. Nick Ball go, both would be very good wins and help his career resume but neither do anything for him as far as greatness at 122.

 

Nick Ball is tailor-made for Inoue; it'd be target practice for 12 rounds. He's nowhere near defensively good enough to beat him. Inoue basically needs to stay at 126 for the next 5 years and obliterate everyone to be near Gomez, I think. H2H, it's an incredible matchup, but I still think Gomez wins, and I think he wins by stoppage H2H. I think Morales at 122 beats Inoue as well, but for me he's already in the top 3 122 fighters of all time, and he still has a good 2/3 years left of his prime.

 

at 122 neither are proven. last week junto would have elevated him from where he currently stands. today, most would feel junto isnt as shiny a scalp at 122. bam looked a bit smaller than puma in his last fight, so he may look tiny at 122 and not be the same beast there.
personally, i think bam will look good enough at 118 that a win over him will be a great way to cap off a tremendous career, and would put naoya in position to claim the best small man ever title.

 

I’m not too aware of Gomez’s 122 run besides the big wins, but he wasn’t a great at 126 or 130 despite winning a title in both, not even close. Why would inoue need to become an ATG at 126 to get near him H2H? I mean, the only notable guy Gomez beat at 126 lost to a 23-19 fighter one fight before Gomez beat him in a non title fight, won a vacant title and lost to Gomez in his first defense.

 

Bam has done the Aged Care tour of past greats. Who has he beaten that gives confidence he could compete against Inoue? Bam won't fight Inoue until he believes he is past it.

Inoue will beat Nakatani.

122 is probably not Inoue's best weight, but he has achieved a lot at that weight IMHO. Not #1 though.

 

Edwards, Martinez and Cafu were pretty good prime wins. I mean, they’re not HoFers but inoue himself hasn’t beaten any prime HoFers.


The thing is, even if he beat Teraji/Willbaldo winner and unified a couple titles at 118, Inoue will still be the favorite. There’s just not the competition to make him favored over a fighter as successful at 122/other weights as Inoue has been. If he goes up and wins a 118 title, there’s not much you could criticize about his career, he fought the best available to him besides maybe junto and he’d only be a division below inoue.

 

Sorry, I wasn't clear at all with my comment there. I meant to say 122 instead of 126; he needs to stay at 122 for the next 5 years because that's essentially what Gomez did, and he knocked out the best challengers, 17 defences, and the vast majority of them were KO wins.

Inoue has looked incredibly dominant at 122, but his last two fights have shown that his power hasn't carried over in the same way; his chin has shown vulnerabilities against Nery & Cardenas, too. I think Gomez beats him H2H by knockout. But I think Gomez could knock out any 122 fighter in history, potentially, apart from someone with a freakish chin like Wayne McCullough.

It'd be an absolute firefight between two of the top 5 122 fighters of all time, though. In Inoue's defence, 122 is not his natural weight, whereas it was for Gomez. P4P, he is probably already above him.

 

Wait what? Wasn’t Bam a lot bigger than Puma?

 

naah, look at their backs and trunk. Puma has the upper body of a bigger man.

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Beating both Nakatani and Bam would greatly benefit Inoue's resume although being considered the greatest 122 over Gomez is a tough one. Will have to see how it pans out if it actually does happen. Gomez has 17 title defenses all by KO plus big wins over Zarate and Pintor at 122.

 

What about if Bam moved up and stopped Inoue? Then won a rematch, and then defeated Nakatani, would he be closer to Gomez?