By Chris Williams: IBF/WBC bantamweight champion Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue (21-0,18 KOs) will be defending against little-known #6 IBF Allan Dipaen (12-2, 11 KOs) next on December 14th in Kokugikan, Japan. This seems to be a business-level match for Inoue rather than one that will interest boxing fans.
Inoue-Diapaen is the worst mismatch for the 28-year-old Inoue than his last one against Michael Dasmarinas.
Inoue’s opposition getting worse
Rather than ascending in his choice of opposition, Inoue is descending in a race to the bottom, and it’s hard to know why. Inoue is capable of beating far better competition than Allan Dipaen.
It’s unclear who with Inoue’s team came up with the idea for him to defend his IBF/WBC 118-lb titles against Dipaen, but whoever it is, they whiffed on this one.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum would be doing ESPN and the U.S boxing fans a huge favor by not televising the Inoue vs. Dipaen fight in the United States, as it’s an awful fight on paper.
This mismatch is far worse than the Teofimo Lopez vs. George Kambosos Jr. bout on November 27th.
Naoya taking a HUGE step down in competition
Inoue has built his fan base in the United States with impressive wins over Jason Maloney, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Nonito Donaire, Juan Carlos Payano, and Jamie McDonnell. But there are no words to describe how dreadful Inoue’s fight with Dipaen appears to be.
Dipaen, 30, has been fighting exclusively weak opposition since losing to Tommy Frank in 2019. The Thailand fighter Dipaen comes into the fight with Inoue having won his last six fights against horrible opposition, and, interestingly, he’s been given a #6 ranking with the IBF.
The question is, why is ‘Monster’ Inoue’s promoters at Top Rank matching him against such a poor opponent as Dipaen? The 30-year-old Dipaen is arguably the worst choice of opponent for Inoue since his second pro fight against Bunnam Thammakhun (9-10)back in 2013.
Dipaen’s last seven opponents:
- Sukpraserd Ponpitak (26-11)
- Sapia Pohasae – debut (0-0)
- Mochamad Sholimin (5-9-1)
- Wisitsak Saiwaew (6-10)
- Jomar Fajardo (16-13-2)
- Wisitsak Saiwaew (6-8)
- Tommy Frank (16-2)
Dipaen lost to Tommy Frank by a 12 round split decision in September 2019, which has led to the Thailand fighter facing the six fodder-level opponents to get back on the winning track. Frank, by the way, has lost two out of his last three fights.
You can argue that it would make more sense for ‘Monster’ Inoue to defend against the British fighter Frank next rather than the guy that he beat in Dipaen. Again, there’s got to be some reason behind Inoue fighting Diapaen that boxing fans aren’t aware of.
It looks like a business-level fight to Chris Williams, similar to Gennadiy Golovkin facing Ryota Murata in a mismatch on paper on December 29th.
“Next round December 14th (Tuesday) Ryogoku Kokugikan
Opponent is IBF 6th place Alan Dipaen (Thailand)
“It’s been two years since the match in Japan, so I’m really looking forward to it. Please look forward to it!” said Naoya Inoue on Twitter.