Undisputed super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue will defend his four belts in the early morning hours on Monday against Luis Nery at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. The event will be shown live on ESPN+ in the U.S. starting at 4:00 a.m. ET this Monday, May 6.
Revenge or Risk?
Inoue (26-0, 23 KOs) wanted to fight Nery (35-1, 27 KOs) rather than move up to featherweight to take on the big dogs at 126.
Some fans believe ‘Monster’ Inoue chose the recently knocked out Nery to avenge fellow countryman Shinsuke Yamanaka’s two defeats against him in 2017 and 2018.
If this is a move by Inoue for national pride, it’s too late. Inoue should have fought Nery in 2018, not 2024 BEFORE he’d been knocked out. It’s kind of pointless now, with Nery having been destroyed by Brandon Figueroa in 2021. How does Inoue come out ahead, beating a fighter who was already knocked out?
Figueroa should be the one that Inoue is targeting rather than his knockout victim. Of course, that’s a much more dangerous fight for Inoue, and he might lose. It would be more heroic on Inoue’s part to fight one of these killers at 126 and 130:
– Luis Alberto Lopez
– Brandon Figueroa
– Raymond Ford
– Rey Vargas
– Nick Ball
– Rafael Espinoza
– Robeisy Ramirez
– Joseph Cordina
– O’Shaquie Foster
– Robson Conceicao
Under the Radar and Underwhelming
The Inoue vs. Nery fight has gone under the radar for most U.S. boxing fans, as it hasn’t been heavily promoted in the States, and the event time makes it impossible to see unless Americans call off work.
It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall at Top Rank headquarters and listen to their thoughts on the early morning broadcast of Inoue’s fight against Nery. As the co-promoters for Naoya Inoue, Top Rank can’t get a good deal with his fights being shown early in the morning.
With the event starting at 4:00 am ET / 1:00 am PT, it’s not going to be seen by many Americans until afterward if they’re willing to watch it’s already happened.
Undercard Action
– Takuma Inoue vs Sho Ishida
– Jason Moloney vs Yoshiki Takei
– Seigo Yuri Aku vs Taku Kuwahara
Naoya’s brother, Takuma Inoue is fighting on the undercard. Takuma won his WBA bantamweight title last year, defeating 41-year-old Liborio Solís by a 12-round decision.
In Takuma’s last fight, he stopped Jerwin Ancajas in the ninth round. Ancajas had lost two out of his last three fights going into that fight.