By Jim Dower: Unbeaten World Boxing Organization Super flyweight champion Naoya Inoue (11-0, 9 KOs) kept his unbeaten record intact with a 10th round knockout win over #2 WBO Petchbangborn Kokietgym (38-8-1, 18 KOs) on Saturday night at the Sky Arena in Zama, Kanagawa, Japan. The 23-year-old Inoue hurt Petchbangborn with a series of hard shots in the 10th. Inoue then flurried on the badly hurt Petchbangborn until he dropped to the canvas.
At this point, referee Mark Nelson stepped in and halted the contest at 3:03 of round 10.
At the time of the stoppage, Inoue was ahead by the scores 90-81, 88-83 and 90-81.
Inoue got on his toes and jabbed and landed pot-shots to the head of Petchbangborn in the 9th round in what looked like an imitation of boxing great Muhammad Ali. Inoue was able to do a lot of damage while fighting in this style while at the same time frustrating Petchbangborn.
During this round, Petchbangborn’s face started to turn red from the many shots he was absorbing from Inoue. He didn’t have the understanding that to get to Inoue to make him stop moving, he needed to come forward and stab him to the body. That’s how you force movers like Inoue to stop moving, because it’s hard to move when you’re getting hit to the body because you can’t tense you’re midsection as well on the move to take the body shots.
The punches hurt a lot more. Petchbangborn fought like he had no understanding about the sport. He was head hunting, missing and standing in one place rather than chasing after Inoue.
Overall, it was a good performance from Inoue. He showed a lot of variety with his punches, especiall6y in terms of the angles of his shots. The results of the fight showed that Inoue is at least the second best fighter in the division.
What’s not known is how long Inoue can hang onto his WBO title. Inoue is a good fighter, but I’m not so certain that he’s the best fighter in the super flyweight division (115lbs). World Boxing Council Carlos Cuadras appears to be the better fighter. Cuadras possesses better punching power than Inoue, and he’s quite capable of walking through shots to deliver his own harder shots. Former three division world champion Roman Gonzalez is moving up to the division in his fight against Cuadras on September 10.
I believe Gonzalez would beat Inoue as well. He’s got better punching power, and he’s capable of throwing just as many punches as Inoue but with far more power. I don’t think Inoue has the experience to beat talented guys like Cuadras and Gonzalez. Right now, Inoue is looking good against the weak opponents he’s facing like Petchbangborn, David Carmona, and Warlito Parrenas, but he’s not going to beat Cuadras or Gonzalez. Those guys will give the 23-year-old Inoue a real beating if his management makes the mistake of putting the younger in with them. I don’t think they will. They’re being very careful with Inoue, and I suspect they’ll steer a wide berth around Cuadras and Gonzalez.