Naoya Inoue will stay at 122 to defend his undisputed super bantamweight title next against #1 IBF and WBO contender Sam Goodman on December 24th in Tokyo, Japan.
Nakatani on the Undercard in December
On the undercard of that fight will be undefeated WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani, who will defend against a yet-to-be-determined opponent. The idea behind having the 26-year-old Nakatani (28-0, 21 KOs) on the undercard of Inoue-Goodman is to create interest in a clash between the two Japanese champions.
Goodman, a weak puncher and another easy mark for Inoue, is not the fighter that fans wanted to see from the Japanese star face next. They want to see Naoya Inoue, 31, move up to 126 and test himself against Bruce Carrington, Angelo Leo, Rafael Espinoza, Nick Ball, Robeisy Ramirez and Brandon Figueroa.
Fans want to see Inoue fight someone good for a change instead of the middle-of-the-road opposition he’s been feeding on for the last 12 years. American fans view Inoue in a completely different light than their Japanese counterparts, viewing him as a craftily packaged hype job matched carefully and sold to the public like a product.
Christmas Eve Showdown
Lance Pugmire reports that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told him that Inoue will fight on Christmas Eve, December 24th, against the 25-year-old Sam Goodman (19-0, 8 KOs), with Junto Nakatani on the undercard. If both Japanese fighters win, they’ll meet in April 2025 at the Tokyo Dome in Japan.
Inoue looked average on Tuesday night, stopping Ireland’s TJ Doheny (26-5, 20 KOs) in the seventh round at the Ariake Arena, Tokyo, Japan. The 37-year-old Doheny’s back gave out on him in the seventh, causing the fight to be stopped.
According to Inoue’s promoter, Arum, he cautiously fought through the early rounds because “Doheny had inflated to 147 pounds.” I don’t buy that excuse, but I can’t blame Arum for trying to explain away Inoue’s poor performance. Inoue must be propped up after how he looked against the old guy he was fighting on Tuesday night.
Inoue’s Vulnerability at 122
It looked more like a case of Inoue getting hit with repeated left hands from Doheny, lacking the defensive skills to avoid those shots. The 31-year-old Inoue didn’t look confident enough to take the shots from Doheny to go on the attack the way he had when he was fighting in the lower weight classes against smaller and weaker fighters.
Inoue was dropped in his previous fight against Luis Nery and punished in his clash against Marlon Tapales. Those two fights took away a lot of the bravery that Inoue once had when competing at 108, 112, 115, and 118. Fighting at 122, Inoue doesn’t enjoy getting hit and is unwilling to slug as he’d done earlier in his career.
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