By Jim Dower: WBO super flyweight champion Naoya Inoue (12-0, 10 KOs) retained his title and unbeaten record with a 6th round TKO win over former WBA champion Kohei Kono (32-10-1, 13 KOs) on Friday night at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo, Japan. The 36-year-old Kono, who was coming off of a loss to Luis Concepcion in his last fight, was no match for the 23-year-old Inoue.
Inoue knocked Kono down twice in the 6th round. The fight was halted after the second knockdown of the round. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:01 of the 6th.
The first knockdown of Kono in round six came from a hard left hook from Inoue that send him down hard.
#10 WBO Kono left himself open for the left hook shot by throwing a flurry of shots after he had backed Inoue into the corner and was pelting him with shots.
Kono’s punches were landing, but he didn’t see the left hook counter shot that Inoue threw. The shot hit Kono without him seeing it coming. Inoue had attempted the same short left hook seconds earlier, but it missed it’s mark. The second left hook landed hard on Kono’s jaw, sending him down.
A badly hurt Kono barely beat the count in making it back to his feet. Moments later, Inoue flattened Kono with a right uppercut that that left no doubt. There would be no getting up from this knockdown. Inoue chased Kono across the ring to finish him with the right hand to the head.
You can argue that Kono didn’t deserve a title shot against Inoue, because he had lost his last fight. However, Kono is popular in Japan, so it made it more of a business type of fight rather than one where Kono had actually earned the fight by winning his last fight. He lost his last fight to Conception. If anyone should have been getting the fight, it should have been Yafai Khalid, because he just finished beating Conception to take his WBA title.
There were some good and bad things to say about Inoue’s performance against Kono. The positive was the amazing boxing skills and the tremendous variety of punches he showed in the fight. Inoue was throwing shots from every angle, and doing an excellent job of mixing up his shots. He was dangerous with the different positions that he was throwing his shots from. The negative was that Inoue had problems when Kono was attacking him with a high volume attack in the 4th and 5th rounds.
When Kono would throw a lot of punches, Inoue tended to have problems, because he would get hit a lot and he would stop punching. That was bad news for Inoue, because the better fighters in the super flyweight division, Roman Gonzalez and Carlos Cuadras, are guys that throw a lot of punches. Gonzalez specially is one that is capable of throwing nonstop shots for 12 rounds. Can Inoue handle that kind of attack? Maybe he can.
From what I saw in tonight’s Inoue-Kono fight, I think Inoue would struggle against Gonzalez’s high punch output. Inoue would do better against Cuadras, but he would still have a lot of problems with his punching power and his flurries. Kono had no power to speak of, and yet he was able to redden both of Inoues cheeks with his shots.
For Inoue, this was his fourth successful defense of his World Boxing Organization title. Some fans believe him to be the best fighter in the super flyweight division. As good as Inoue looked, he would have a hard time if/when he faces WBC super flyweight champion Roman Gonzalez. He’s more complete fighter than Inoue and the guys that he’s been beating. Inoue’s handlers might want to steer him around Gonzalez and Carlos Cuadras, because those two guys look like better fighters.
Inoue hurt Kono with a series of body shots late in the 3rd round when he hit him repeatedly with left hooks to the body. Kono backed up and took the shots, but he looked like he was in serious distress.
In the 4th round, Kono came out fast and was really punishing Inoue with hard power shots to the head and body. Just when it looked as if Kono was going to win the round, Inoue hurt him with a hard right hand to the head late in the round. Inoue then flurried on Kono as the round ended. Kono looked like he was in bad shape as he slowly walked back to his corner. Kono looked dejected and hurt.
Kono got the better of Inoue in the 5th in throwing a lot of shots, and keeping him busy covering up much of the round. Inoue did come alive late in the round to land some nice body shots, but for the most part, it was Kono’s round. The aging 36-year-old Kono showed off some boxing ability in that round. It was definitely Kono’s best round of the fight.
Inoue used his jab and movement in the first part of the 6th round, as he looked like he was consciously avoiding letting Kono get in close with him again. However, Kono cornered Inoue and began to unload on him once again like he’d done most of the 5th round. Unfortunately for Kono, Inoue dropped him with a short left hook to the head. Inoue then finished Kono off with a right hand a short while later to knock him down for a second time.
Inoue was ahead at the time of the stoppage by the following judges’ scores 50-45, 50-45 and 49-46.
Inoue looks like a good fighter. It would be nice if his promoters would put him in with the winner of the Roman Gonzalez vs. Carlos Cuadras rematch, because it would be a good test for Inoue. He looks good beating up on old 36-year-old former champions like Kono, but can he doi the same thing about high quality fighters in his prime like Cuadras and Gonzalez?
In other results on the card, IBF light flyweight champion Akira Yaegash (25-5, 14 KOs) defeated challenger Samartlek Kokietgym (31-6, 12 KOs) by a 12th round TKO. Yaegash hurt Kokietgym with a right hand in the 12th. He then flurried on him until the referee stepped in and stopped the fight.
The fight had little in the way of meaningful action until the 11th round, when Yaegash opened up with a blizzard of hurt right hands to the head of Kokietgym late in the round. It was a really good round for Yaegash.
In the 12th, Koketgym stood in the center of the ring and opened up with a four-punch combination of punches. However, the brief flurry of shots from Kokietgym left him wide open for a counter right hand from Yaegash. The shot hurt Kokietgym, causing him to back up against the ropes. Yaegash went after the badly hurt Kokietgym and raked him with nonstop shots until the referee Gerald Whyte was forced to step in and stop the fight. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:13 of the 12th round.
Yaegash was ahead in the fight by the following scores: 109-100, 110-99, and 109-98. The only real criticism you can give Yaegash is his lack of hand speed and his decision to wait until late in the fight before going after Kokietgym in a sustained manner. If Yaegash had attacked Koketgym earlier in the fight like he did in the 12th, he might have been able to get an earlier knockout.