Inoue recovers from shock at the beginning of the fight and stands out with another impressive knockout – Boxing

Inoue recovers from shock at the beginning of the fight and stands out with another impressive knockout – Boxing – Sportacentrs.com

Naoja Inoue (27-0), who is considered one of the best boxers in the world right now (in all weight classes), has never been knocked down in any of his professional boxing fights until today. That changed in the first round of today’s fight when Mexican Luis Neri (35-2) surprised him with a left hook and knocked him to the floor.

Inoue got up quickly though and didn’t seem particularly hurt. Mexican boxer Neri, who had labeled Inoui as overrated before the fight, continued to attack aggressively after sending his opponent down, hoping to end the fight with a sensation in the first round. But the Japanese “Monster” Inoue avoided and waited for the end of the round.

In the second round, Inoue had already fully recovered and took the initiative. He responded with a knockdown in his performance, from which the Mexican got up safely. But in the continuation, Neri ran out of weapons for successful counterattacks.

Inoue knocked him down again in the fifth round, followed by a knockout in the sixth. Inoue even allowed himself to “play to the crowd”, demonstratively offering his opponent opportunities to strike and asking “is that all you can do?” with hand gestures. Inoue then went on the offensive, cornering Neri in the corner of the ring, where he knocked Neri out with a straight right after a brief exchange of blows.

Inoue thus defended all world champion titles (WBA, IBF, WBC and WBO) in the weight category up to 53.3kg. He won all 27 fights in his career, winning world titles in four weight classes, becoming the undisputed champion in two of them.

This was Inoue’s third fight at this weight class. He fought all three fights against the “Top 5” boxers of this division and defeated all of them by knockout. Inoue has 24 knockouts in 27 fights in professional boxing.

His next fight is likely to be against Australian boxer Sam Goodman (18-0), who walked out of the ring after the fight. Goodman is the mandatory challenger for the WBO and IBF titles, and both boxers expressed their determination to agree on a title fight between them in September.