Naoya Inoue survived the first knockdown of his career to remain undisputed super bantamweight champion with a sixth-round knockout of Luis Nery in Tokyo.
Pound-for-pound king Inoue was floored for the first time as a professional in a shock opening round at Tokyo Dome, Japan, but came off the canvas to knock down the former two-weight world champion Nery twice before finishing the fight by knockout just before the halfway mark.
Inoue – known as “The Monster” – remains undefeated with a perfect record of 27-0 including 24 knockouts. Nery falls to 35-2 (27 KOs).
FOLDED IT.
GOOD NIGHT FROM THE FULL TOKYO DOME 👑🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/8J3fgl7api
– Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) May 6, 2024
The 31-year-old is considered one of the best boxers in the world and is only the second male fighter in history – after American Terence Crawford – to be an undisputed champion in two weight divisions at the era of the four belts. He became undisputed bantamweight champion in December 2022 following a technical knockout of Paul Butler.
He last fought in December – a 10th round knockout victory over Marlon Tapales – and started in unusually slow fashion with a sharp left hook from Nery catching him and sending him to the ground.
The underdog Nery, with just one defeat under his belt, could have been forgiven for dreaming of the upset, but Inoue fought back in the second round and dropped him with a left hand of his own.
Neither fighter appeared too hurt, but with Inoue growing in confidence and even finding time to showboat, gesturing for Nery to advance towards him, a second knockdown followed in the fifth.
The Mexican reached the safety of the bell, but he couldn’t save it in the sixth as a wild right hand from Inoue sent him crashing into the ropes to end the fight.
(Philip Fong/AFP via Getty Images)