Promoter Bob Arum raved about undisputed super middleweight champion Naoya Inoue on Thursday, comparing him to Mexican great Salvador Sanchez, a fighter who was a big star in the U.S. during the early 1980s until his tragic death from an automobile accident in August 1982.
Knockouts Are Flashy, But Resume Matters
Arum feels that what sets apart the 31-year-old ‘Monster’ Inoue (26-0, 23 KOs) from Salvador Sanchez is the Japanese star knocks out most of his opponents.
The level of opposition that Inoue has fought has been appalling compared to the legends that boxing great Salvador Sanchez fought.
When he died at 23, he’d already fought far more talented fighters than Inoue could ever hope to fight. Salvador’s courage and ambition were on a different level from what I’ve seen from Inoue.
Sanchez (44-1-1, 32 KOs) didn’t, and he was beaten earlier in his career by little-known fighter Antonio Becerra, and he had a draw against another obscure fighter, Juan Escobar.
Sanchez fought much better opposition during his career than Inoue has, and he had many more fights than him when he passed away at age 23. Inoue is eight years older, at 31, and he has fewer fights than Sanchez’s 46. There’s no comparison.
Inoue’s Cherry-Picked Path
Inoue has fought largely average fighters throughout his career, and the best guy he’s fought, Nonito Donaire, was 40, and he gave him pure hell in their first fight. Undoubtedly, a younger Donaire would have mopped the floor with Inoue.
Naoya Inoue’s best fights:
Nonito Donaire: *40-years-old
Stephen Fulton
Marlon Tapales
Emmanuel Rodríguez
Jason Moloney
Salvador Sanchez’s best fights:
Azumah Nelson
Wilfredo Gomez
Ruben Castillo
Danny ‘Little Red’ Lopez
Juan Laporte
Felix Trinidad Sr.
Patrick Ford
Arum’s Selective Memory
“It’s scary what I’m seeing. He so overwhelms his opponents, who are really good opponents. I’ve never seen a fighter of that size perform the way he has,” said promoter Bob Arum to the Fight Hub TV YouTube site about Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue, who he promotes with his Top Rank company.
“Maybe a Salvador Sanchez had that ability, but even then, he didn’t win all his fights by knockout. Inoue goes into these fights, he boxes these guys and then he knocks them out.”
The Nery Mismatch
Inoue will defend his undisputed super bantamweight championship against Luis Nery (35-1, 27 KOs) on May 6th at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. Many boxing fans have criticized this fight, as Nery was knocked out in seven rounds by Brandon Figueroa in 2020. He’s fought nothing but scrubs since then, winning his last four fights.
Some see Inoue’s decision to stay at 122 as a sign that he is fearful of moving up to featherweight to take on the lurking sharks in the division, such as Luis Alberto Lopez, Raymond Ford, Rey Vargas, Rafael Espinoza, and Robeisy Ramirez.