Naoya Inoue Vs. Marlon Tapales Undisputed Title Fight Set For 12/26!

Inoue has only ever had 1 close fight and he won it clearly w the late KD. Other than that he's never had a close fight. He passes the eye test w flying colors and it cant be held against him that other quality opponents arent available.

What Inoue has NOT done is duck. He didnt pass on the most lucrative and legacy defining fight over drug testing. He is a champion in his 4th weight class (and was champ in his first 3 weight classes) and is set to unify for undisputed in a 2nd weight class (his 4th) in less than 1 year. That's astounding. It's so astounding that no male boxer in the 4 belt era has ever done that. Currently, Crawford is the only other 2 weight class undisputed champion but his reign at 140 and 147 were very far from 12 months.

Canelo, whose universally considered a 1st ballot HOF and arguable ATG, couldnt unify for undisputed at his 2nd weight class. It remains to be seen what will happen w Usyk whose also trying to become undisputed in 2 weight classes but will be a prohibitive underdog versus Fury. And NONE of Crawford, Canelo, or Usyk were even close to accomplishing the feat in 12 months time.

 

Honestly I really hate how you are compelled to imply that Inoue's pretty much predetermined success in this fight somehow has any relation to Crawford or his career. Are all Inoue fans deranged Crawford haters? They aren't even in similar weightclasses. I'll give you the unpopular truth about how even after he wins most won't put him above Crawford P4P. Crawford did it in a glamour division agaisnt a 50/50 opponent, in one of the highest profile fights in the sport and thoroughly washed him out. Inoue has fought who? Donaire. And the time frame of his accomplishment is easier in divisions most fans, especially casuals could care less about with no names to complicate making fights like the more star studded divisions. Inoue himself is barely a name fighter lol. You guys should be happy with his success and progression without trying to line him up with higher rated guys, it only really diminishes him rather than uplift him....

 

HUGE Crawford AND YUGE Inoue fan. Theyre both fantastic.

 

It was hilarious to predictably see Spent move up from low-level P4P rankings to the top5 once the fight was finally made as if US media wished to coronate whoever wins as P4P#1. It don't work like that. That cat never had a true P4P resume, his best win being SFW Mikey Garcia and 2nd best being Shawn Porter, a fight many thought he lost.

 

That's awesome, but every time I see a thread on one of the Inoue fans start with a comparison that isn't really one lol. I don't get it. If the guy is destined to be p4p #1 he'll get there when it's his time, no amount of slander will speed it up for him.

Far as I recall Spence was always around mid top 10 p4p because his biggest fans always complained he should be higher because of his resume. He didn't raise up overnight. I feel for the dude with all the revisionist history being created for him after the loss. All just to say the guy who beat him didn't achieve something special that night smh.

 

Not sure about him not ducking

He managed to avoid fighting everyone at SFLW when the division was on fire and everyone had 2/3 fights against each other.

 

You mean flyweight, he jumped from light flyweight to super flyweight, skipping 112. But yeah it was a shame he never fought at 112 which had some good fighters.

Gonzalez had just fought twice in Japan in 2014 so would of made sense to make the fight in 2015 with Inoue moving up to face him. If at anytime he avoided a fight it was perhaps then as everything seemed to be in place.

But he did later offer a fight to Gonzalez in a unification bout which Gonzalez turned down stating he would make more in a rematch vs Cuadras who he had just beat to win a title at 115. So it looks like the money was never going to be lucrative enough at the time to make the fight happen as Inoue had yet to blow up and garner the kind of respect and money he has now. So even if he had fought at 112, the fights may not have happened as Gonzalez clearly wanted more money than Inoue could offer at the time.

 

I always struggle on how to rate the achievements of tiny men.

On one hand, he's obviously an ATG fighter and p4p monster that is so dominant p4p that he can unify and move up like it's nothing, whilst also being WILLING to do so, unlike 99% of modern boxers and modern boxer promoters.

On the other hand, he also weighs as much as I did when I was 12. Winning belts from Light Flyweight to Super Bantamweight is all but a 6kg jump, which isn't very much at all. Hell, when you start getting to Middleweight people can start fighting opponents that outweigh them by 6kg in the same division let alone accross 5.

That and it's much easier to fight for Undisputed when your divisions are so unpopular that no one has any special leverage to stall negotiations lol. It seems like even taking into account the p4p concept, which is literally just grading on a curve but for sports, smaller fighters get graded on a curve again for being able to do things that aren't really feasible for heavier fighters.

Before anyone calls me a hater Inoue is my favourite fighter today outside of Usyk so shush.

 

No I specifically mean SFLW.

Cuadras, Wangek, Gonzalez, Estrada. All 4 managed to fight each other and Inoue managed to avoid fighting them all.

It's just mental to think of a big star being in and around those weight classes and not making the fight happen against a red hot division.

 

Spence's best accomplishment was sparring stories w Floyd lmfao

Spence was always basic but people lauded his "fundamentals" and he was NEVER propped up on PFP lists...he was always on them. And Crawford beat the brakes off that boy

But dont get it twisted, being basic and fundamental doesnt mean you cant be elite. GGG is probably a Top 10 MW of all time and he was pretty "straight up and down". Hell, Hagler - the greatest MW ever - was also straight up and down. Add Wlad and Vitali to the ATGs who were also straight up and down, add Winky Wright and Carl Froch and there are dozens of fighters who mostly fought 1 way and 1 style but were nonetheless successful even at the elite levels.

All those "experts" were just wrong.

 

I

I love Manny, but Let's be honest. Inoue is a better boxer and has more talent. Inoue boxing is an art.

 

Drained, inactive , brain damaged corpse *

 

I mean from a historical standpoint point going from flyweight to bantamweight is one of the hardest jumps to do.

edit: Turns out I was thinking of bantamweight to featherweight. oops. Flyweight to bantamweight still isn't easy tho.

 

Chocolatito said Inoue couldn't offer him enough money to make the fight worth it. He wasn't able to provide the purses Estrada, Wangek and Choc were, so they fought each other.

 

The problem with this is there's more than just Chocalito in the division. Estrada, Wangek and Cuadras were all there as well.