Naoya Inoue takes Joon Kim down and out in four rounds to defend his undisputed world super-bantamweight title | Boxing news

Naoya Inoue doesn’t need to be asked twice.

With his opponent catching him, Inoue stepped up with a devastating right cross to blast Joon Kim to the canvas to defend his undisputed world championship in four rounds.

Kim hoped to achieve an unlikely dream. The Korean jumped at the opportunity against Inoue – one of, if not the best in the sport – when he stepped in to replace Sam Goodman.

Goodman had two chances for this fight, but a sparring cut that reopened ahead of this bred date finally ruled him out completely.

Kim was on standby, so instead of being the undercard, he became part of the main event. But he still faced arguably the toughest task in World Boxing, trying to beat Naoya Inoue, and he did it in just two weeks.

Inoue is a two-time undisputed world champion, who now holds all four major super-bantamweight titles.

He went up to 122 kilos in 2023 and won every weight he went at that weight within the distance. The Japanese star blazed past Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales to unify the WBA, WBC, WBO and IBF World titles.

He recently forced TJ Doheny to pull out of their fight and also completed an exciting championship defense against Luis Nery last year.

Nery scored a stunning fall against Inoue in the first round. But Inoue got up from it to blow Nery with another huge finish.

This last defense was another showcase of his devastating capabilities.

A story of struggle

Kim went out on a jugpaw, moving to the center of the ring at the opening bell. Inoue waited for him, his lead high to disrupt the right challenger and stayed patient, before landing a straight right into Kim’s trunk.

Kim had to step back, to keep out of range of those flat shots.

In the second round, Inoue moved Kim back with a hard right. He started tagging Kim. Inoue cracked Kim with a left right combination. Kim tried to curve to the left, but it was too slow and the inoue reared away from her.

As the cross landed on Inoue, the champion timed his right to catch Kim cleanly.

Kim got his cross into Inoue’s body and he jumped out of the combo, willing to get his jab up.

But Inoue’s power was soon raised by a swelling under Kim’s eye, and the champion punished him with solid jabs.

And he broke through the crack. A left hook then hit Kim’s body right, a hit that must have knocked the wind out of him. Kim had to pedal back.

Inoue stayed sharp in the fourth round. He cornered Kim and the challenger pushed hard to escape.

Counters slammed into Kim and a left hook to Kim’s body landed with a sonic force.

Kim was reduced to showing her toughness, invoking — but that only invited trouble. A left scraper hurt Kim, but a huge straight right that landed was the finishing blow.