Japan’s undisputed super-bantamweight world champion Naoya Inoue on Monday night said an early scare got him “fired up” after he stopped Mexico’s Luis Nery in the sixth round to defend his titles at the Tokyo Dome.
About 43,000 fans packed into the famous venue for the first boxing match there since 42-1 underdog James “Buster” Douglas knocked out unbeaten heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in February 1990 in one of the sport’s biggest upsets.
Another seismic shock looked like it could be on the cards when Nery floored the unbeaten “Monster” Inoue in the first round with a huge left hand, with all four championship belts up for grabs.
Photo: AFP
Inoue got up and knocked his opponent down in the following round, before sending him to the canvas again in the fifth and finishing him off with a right hook in the sixth.
“It was a great feeling to knock him down, but how about that surprise in the first round?” the 31-year-old Inoue said. “As a boxer, when that happens to you it fires you up. It gave me a lot of energy.”
Inoue chuckled incredulously to himself as he sat down at the end of a stunning first round.
However, the Japanese fighter gave a yell as he left his stool for the start of the second and was soon on level terms after dropping Nery with a well-timed left.
“From the moment I went down, I was able to recover calmly,” Inoue said. “I think it was precisely because I went down that I was able to fight the way I did.”
Inoue gave yet another demonstration of his ferocious punching power as he picked Nery apart in the following rounds.
He downed his opponent with a juddering left hook in the fifth, then landed the finishing blow in the sixth to win by technical knockout.
Inoue took his record to 27-0 with 24 wins by KO, and said that his team would enter negotiations to fight Australian Sam Goodman in his next title defense, likely to be in September.
“Fighting at Tokyo Dome gave me a lot of power, but there was also pressure,” he said.
It was Inoue’s first title defense since becoming the undisputed super-bantamweight world champion in December last year.
He is just the second man to become undisputed world champion at two different weights since the four-belt era began in 2004. American Terence Crawford was the first.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS