Yeah, yeah, boxing ain’t what it was. Families ain’t gonna gather ‘round their radios to listen to prize fights ever again. And, sure, the most-watched and talked-about bout of the last couple years, Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul, was far more a circus than a legitimate matchup. But the sport really isn’t in a horrible place right now. There are plenty of stars deserving of a bigger audience.
Case in point: Naoya Inoue, the reigning world junior featherweight champion and an absolute superstar in his native Japan. But only in his native Japan. You likely don’t know this, but Inoue already fought today. He retained his title with another artful, violent, and very expected knockout, this one of South Korean challenger Ye Joon Kim in Tokyo.
A series of huge right hands from Inoue near the end of the fourth round left Kim on the canvas in a pile of pain and tears, and put Inoue’s career record at 29-0, with 26 knockouts. That’s a whole lot of stoppages for a guy toiling in a lower weight class (the junior featherweight limit is122 lbs.). Inoue’s KO percentage, combined with his boy-band looks and cool dyed coif, would seem to make his renown ripe to transcend the homeland and boxing obsessives.
But Inoue, now 31 years old, has rarely fought outside Japan since making his 2012 pro debut in Tokyo, and not at all since a June 2021 bout against Filipino fighter Michael Dasmarinas in Las Vegas. Because of the pandemic, only a limited number of spectators saw the action live, as Inoue bullied Dasmarinas into submission in the third round with a series of perfect and paralyzing liver shots. And you can only be so famous in the West when you fight at 6:00 a.m. EST, as Inoue did this morning in a bout televised live by ESPN+. That’s 8:00 p.m. in Tokyo, prime time for the only audience Inoue has thus far cared about capturing.
And by now he sure has captured it. Fred Sternburg, a Colorado-based public relations genius who specializes in the sweet science and a recent inductee to the Boxing Hall of Fame, calls Inoue “Japan’s Joe Louis,” and says there’s been no competitive or financial urgency for the fighter known back home as 怪物 or “Kaibutsu” (“Monster” in English) to look for greener pastures.
“There isn't any place in the world that can provide the gates and other income streams he generates in Japan,” Sternburg tells me. “Beloved is an understatement when describing how Japan, not just boxing fans but the entire nation, feels about its favorite son. He's arguably the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world and he can dictate the terms to anyone willing to fight him.”
The rest of the world has come calling for Inoue for some time. Promoter Bob Arum in particular has pushed for Inoue to pull a reverse Cheap Trick and get big in the U.S. Through the decades, his firm, Top Rank Promotions, handled Floyd Mayweather and Oscar de la Hoya and put on some of the biggest fights in history. Arum was in Tokyo for the Inoue bout, which was promoted by his firm, and to deliver his come-West-youngish-man pitch to Inoue in person. Inoue did nothing but whet the appetite of Arum (and any North American viewers who’d stayed awake or gotten up for the bout) to get him to come to America.
Kim had taken the fight on short notice after Inoue's originally scheduled challenger, Australian Sam Goodman, backed out, citing cuts suffered in training. While normally an orthodox fighter, Kim came out in a southpaw stance for the first round. Inoue seemed puzzled at first and was overly cautious, leading to a dullard opening stanza. But both fighters tossed caution away by the next bell. Inoue, light on his feet but with lead in his hands, was literally leaping toward the challenger with his left jab, and started firing haymaker rights off Kim’s head. Kim began throwing counter right hands with bad intentions, some of which hit their mark. But the disparity in power between the fighters was made clear in the round. Inoue all but disregarded even the punches that found his noggin, while super slo-mo replays showed that every punch Inoue landed caused the challenger’s skin to ripple as the water in a pond would when a stone is tossed in.
By the start of the third round Kim’s left eye was badly swollen, yet despite being beaten to the punch and just plain beaten with regularity, the challenger began taunting Inoue with facial expressions and waves. The misguided and obnoxious display seemed to fire up the champ and portend awful things for Kim. And awfulness indeed found him late in the fourth. Kim waved his left glove at his opponent with one final come-at-me gesture, and Inoue quickly complied with a lightning-fast left-right combo that crumpled Kim. Referee Mark Nelson humanely hugged Kim and waved off the fight.
Arum got on the microphone in the ring after the fight and asked “the great country of Japan to give this great Inoue to the city of Las Vegas for one fight this spring.” Inoue graciously accepted Arum’s entreaty to expand his horizons.
“In spring 2025,” Inoue said, “I will be going to Las Vegas for a great match.”
Neither Arum nor Inoue floated the names of prospective opponents, however. ESPN commentator Timothy Bradley called for Inoue to get in the ring with Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, the WBC super flyweight champ.
“It’s time to move on to bigger and better things,” Bradley, speaking for all U.S. fight fans, counseled Inoue. “Now we want to see you in there with somebody who is considered a threat.”
