Donaire is still the most likely to win IMO. It's just styles. Rigondeaux is heaps old nowadays, and Inoue would be a pretty bad match-up for him prime for prime - although I'd take Rigo, there. Inoue last night didn't impress me like I thought he was gonna. Normally vs southpaws, his feet are incredible. He knows exactly when, why and how to use them vs a lefty. He keeps his lead-foot on the outside to look for his hooks and cut the ring off, but knows that it's best for landing your jab if it's on the inside. He uses the old school style of stepping in deep to draw their cross, so you can counter and essentially half their offense due to being in the superior position. The way he cuts off the ring, draws the jab and sets up his cross and debilitating bodywork leads me to believe that any Rigo has his hands full with Inoue, especially this middle-aged version. The way he obliterated the similarly southpaw, similarly old, similarly negative, similar rhythm-based Narvaez is almost exactly how I think this fight would go. For some reason I had it in my head that Casimero was also a southpaw but upon refreshing myself last night, I realised I was wrong there. I think it's the instinctive, reckless puncher 'vibe' he shares with Julio Cesar Martinez, why I thought that. Anywho, Casimero is gonna be walking Inoue down and that is not where you want to be I reckon Inoue knocks him out during an exchange in a wild fight. A proper defining win for Inoue, something I doubt we'd have gotten unless he moved up. Donaire, on the other hand, is still the absolute master at timing rhythms and breaking them with nuclear warhands. Inoue comes forward at a steady pace, with a consistent rhythm, squared up and upright, with his chin in the air. Donaire just has the the perfect set of attributes to exploit Inoue's weaknesses and withstand his strengths. He doesn't have the same dexterous feet that he did in his prime, and he isn't the ring general he once was, but he's still got the perfect style to beat Inoue. It speaks volumes IMO that Inoue overcame that, against someone who's still operating at an extremely high level.
I have not made my mind up, but Rigondeaux can definitely cause an upset, even though he is 41 his style is one that can go on a wee bit longer than others
Inoue handled Donaire w/ impaired vision and a painful injury from the second round on. And then he got hit w/ another crazy nuke in the late rounds. Inoue will be more defensively responsible in the rematch. His defense is actually really good considering how offensive he is. Inoue gets his KO this time.
