Appearing in his 25th consecutive world title fight on Sunday night, May 4, Naoya Inoue wasn't flummoxed when he was knocked down by Ramon Cardenas in the second round. A counter left hook caught Inoue by surprise.
Instead, the undisputed super bantamweight champion quickly recovered at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
In fact, Inoue's overwhelming punching power dictated the rest of the fight, resulting in a knockdown of Cardenas in the seventh round ― with a lethal right-left combo delivering the intended impact.
Sensing the end was near, Inoue followed with a flurry of blows that pummeled the challenger in the next round.
During the final key sequence of the bout, with Inoue on the attack his opponent was pinned in on the ropes. The Japanese champion landed more than a dozen consecutive punches in a series of rapid-fire combinations without a counterattack.
That prompted referee Thomas Taylor to stop the fight after 45 seconds had elapsed in the eighth round.
All three ringside judges had Inoue leading 68-63 on their scorecards heading into Round 8.
Inoue improved to 30-0 with 27 knockouts in his illustrious career. He has previously held world titles in the light flyweight, super flyweight and bantamweight divisions.
A High Volume of Punches Seals the Win
A native of Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Inoue was at his best in the sixth, seventh and eighth rounds. The frequency and quality of his punches in those rounds greatly diminished Cardenas' chances of winning the fight.
According to CompuBox, Inoue hit his target with 55% of his power punches (57 of 103) in the sixth and seventh rounds.
Inoue repeatedly launched his impressive punch combinations with his jab. It was the catalyst for his sustained attack on Cardenas from the start of the third round until Taylor signaled it was over. And Inoue hit his target with 55 jabs to Cardenas' 24 in that span.
Before the fight-defining moments of the seventh and eight rounds, Inoue and Cardenas produced the bout's best back-and-forth punching in the fourth round as the crowd cheered.
Cardenas, who was competing in his first world title fight, fell to 27-2 (14 KOs).
"He's pound-for-pound one of the greatest fighters on the planet," said Cardenas, who entered the title fight with 14 consecutive wins.
After the bout, Cardenas congratulated Inoue and the two boxers embraced in the ring.
Naoya Inoue Analyzes His Performance
Looking back on the second-round knockdown and the complexion of the fight, Inoue said, "By watching tonight's fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl. I was very surprised [at the knockdown], but I took things calmly and put myself together."
The knockdown was reminiscent of what occurred on May 6, 2024, at Tokyo Dome, when challenger Luis Nery shook Inoue with a left hook that dropped him to the canvas for the first time in his career. Inoue recovered and dominated after that to claim a sixth-round TKO.
"Monster" Inoue, who was fighting outside of Japan for the first time since June 2021 (also in Las Vegas), kept a cautious mindset to avoid another dangerous hook.
"In the first round, I felt I had good distance," he said. "It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again."
Inoue added, "The fans here were supportive and great. And I hope I was able to entertain them."
Cardenas 'Bummed Out' After Loss
After the fight, the 29-year-old Cardenas said he had no regrets.
"I never cared about losses," said Cardenas, who is from San Antonio, Texas. "It's about the best fighting the best. I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas. So I came to give everything."
He added, "I told my trainer that if I'm going out, then I'm going to go out on my shield. That's what I did. I'm not sad. But I'm bummed out. It is what it is."
What's Next for Naoya Inoue?
The unbeaten champion is scheduled to face 30-year-old Uzbek Murodjon Akhmadaliev (13-1, 10 KOs) on September 14 in Tokyo.
Other prominent fighters have expressed a desire to face Inoue.
One, for example, was in the same building on Sunday night in Las Vegas. WBO featherweight champion Rafael Espinoza (27-0, 23 KOs), who beat Edward Vazquez via a seventh-round TKO, voiced his future goal.
"I know a fight against Naoya Inoue, that's what would catapult me into stardom," Espinoza said.
Boxing Notes
In one of the earlier fights before Sunday's main event, Japanese featherweight Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) defeated Pedro Marquez (16-2, 10 KOs) via a fourth-round TKO. Nakano, an Osaka native, dropped Marquez to the canvas five times in the bout, including twice in the second round and two more times in the fourth.
Elsewhere, in an open-air bout at New York City's Times Square on the undercard of the Ryan Garcia-Rolando Romero (welterweights) main event, Japanese junior lightweight Reito Tsutsumi made his pro debut on Friday, May 2. Tsutsumi defeated Levale Whittington by unanimous decision in a six-round match.
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Author: Ed Odeven
Find Ed on JAPAN Forward's dedicated website, SportsLook. Follow his [Japan Sports Notebook] on Sundays, [Odds and Evens] during the week, and X (formerly Twitter) ＠ed_odeven.
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