“A beating drum” is an expression used to mean that something is achieved “hard-fought, triumphantly, or with great grandeur,” a definition that fits well when praising the undefeated Japanese fighter Naoya Inoue. That young warrior, 4-time world champion, in the small, super fly and bantamweight categories in a professional career that began in October 2012; and since last December 26, undisputed monarch of the super bantamweight category, after a resounding victory in 10 rounds over the Filipino Marlon Tapales, who was defending his WBA and IBF belts.
The fight took place at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, with a capacity for 15,000 people and was almost at full capacity by a majority of local fans who watched and cheered the “Monster” relentlessly knock down a handsome opponent, who offered a Tenacious The resistance lasted throughout the ten rounds, until a right hand from the local idol, to the parietal, took him to the canvas, from which he could not get up until after receiving the ten-second count.
Before the end, Tapales never lost and in several passages of the fight he forced Inoue to give his best in a fight that brought intense emotions in most of the ten rounds, which were of strong and constant exchanges of blows.
For Inoue, the victory was his 26th and 23rd KO since his debut against Filipino Crison Omayao, whom he knocked out on October 2, 2012, in the fourth round of the scheduled eight-round debut. Since then, the only other fighters to finish the standing distance against the 30-year-old are compatriot Riochi Taguchi, Mexican David Carmona and Filipino Nonito Donaire, whom he knocked out in a second fight. Tapales, 31 years old, left the ring with a record of 37-4-0, 19 KOS and only 3 lost due to KOS.
Inoue, who deserves the positive adjectives of exceptional, fabulous, spectacular, amazing and as many others as readers can imagine, only fought two fights this year. On July 25 he dispatched the American Stephen Fulton in 8 rounds to win the super bantamweight belt of the Council and the World Boxing Council. Fulton went undefeated in 21 fights, but Inoue proved too much of an enemy for him.
Inoue, born in Zama, Kanagawa, is currently ranked second in boxing’s governing bodies’ unofficial pound-for-pound rankings behind welterweight leader Terence Crawford. There are thousands, millions of fans, however, who think that the Japanese, who is already considered the best boxer in the history of the discipline in his country, should be at the top of the ranking and it is believed that he is not given the first place because it belongs to one of the so-called small categories.
