Naoya Inoue’s first combat on American soil since 2021 resulted in a profitable protection of his undisputed junior featherweight championship in opposition to Ramon Cardenas, although the combat was stuffed with sudden drama. Inoue, who entered as an enormous favourite, was dropped by an ideal Cardenas hook within the second spherical and needed to navigate some uneven waters earlier than lastly breaking Cardenas down to attain an eighth spherical TKO.
Cardenas, realizing he must earn Inoue’s respect early, tried to get off to a powerful begin by displaying a fast jab that he landed a number of instances. With out energy coming behind Cardenas’ jab, Inoue continued in his commonplace mode of firing his personal jab to arrange whipping proper palms. That culminated in a heavy straight proper connecting for Inoue on the finish of the opening body.
Cardenas then flipped the whole combat within the second spherical. After displaying extra aggression and forcing Inoue backward early within the spherical, Cardenas took benefit of Inoue’s try and return the aggression and landed a left hook counter, dropping Inoue to the canvas in a surprising second.
Inoue beat the rely, however Cardenas clearly felt he had discovered the important thing to pulling off a titanic upset. Cardenas started sitting down on counter photographs whereas often exploding ahead with flurries to the physique and head. All of the whereas, Inoue was firing jabs and throwing proper palms both round or via Cardenas’ guard.
Inoue appeared to have solved the puzzle within the fourth spherical, unloading with heavy punches and combos to the physique and head and eventually forcing Cardenas backward greater than in earlier rounds.
Inoue hit a sneaky proper hand halfway via the sixth spherical, sending Cardenas backing into the ropes. Inoue tried to pounce with a relentless flurry of punches that Cardenas weathered earlier than firing again together with his personal assault. Inoue ended the spherical with one other assault in a wild spherical that continued to point out huge coronary heart from the underdog.
Cardenas continued to battle again each time it appeared Inoue was breaking him down, however the Inoue assault lastly caught up within the sixth spherical as he landed a collection of straight proper palms that brought about Cardenas to fall into the nook with the ropes holding him up, leading to a knockdown.
Inoue was not able to let Cardenas off the hook as Spherical 8 began. From the beginning of the spherical, Inoue was rolling ahead and Cardenas was once more stumbled into the ropes. Inoue continued to throw photographs till the referee jumped in to halt the bout. Cardenas protested the referee’s resolution, however his personal nook had stated previous to the beginning of the body that they have been solely giving him another spherical to show issues round and the punishment was attending to be an excessive amount of.
“I feel watching the combat tonight, everyone could be very conscious that I prefer to brawl,” Inoue stated after his victory. “I used to be very shocked [by the knockdown], however I used to be in a position to calmly put myself collectively.”
With the win, Inoue improved to 30-0 as knowledgeable, with 27 wins by knockout. The win over Cardenas was Inoue’s fourth protection of his undisputed title (he was additionally beforehand undisputed at bantamweight previous to transferring up in weight).
It seems Inoue will stay at junior featherweight for his subsequent combat as he stated a long-awaited combat with WBA interim champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev would happen later within the yr.
“Subsequent, September, MJ,” Inoue stated.
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