United super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue defends his title against replacement opponent Ye Joon Kim (21-2-2, 13 KOs) in two days, and there’s a surprising zero buzz about this fight on Friday January 24th.
(Credit: Naoki Fakuda)
No Buzz
It’s a signal that Japanese star ‘Monster’ Inoue (28-0, 25 KOs) must challenge himself by moving up to featherweight so he can start facing opposition that the rest of the world cares about outside his home country of Japan.
Inoue is pretty rich, he fights whoever he wants and it’s possible he doesn’t want to take any chances at this point in his career. It was easy for him, he won the four-weight world title and faced no one more risky than the 36-year-old Nonito Donaire. Inoue suffered a broken right orbital bone i.a broken nose in their first fight on November 7, 2019. You can only imagine what a younger Donaire would do to Inoue.
The event will be broadcast live on ESPN+ this Friday at 4:15 ET/1:15 PT from Ariake Arena, Koto-Ku, in Tokyo, Japan. Few boxing fans in the US will see this fight because they won’t want to get up early on Friday to see what numbers could be another mismatch for Inoue. You have to wonder what Top Rank thinks about this fight.
Inoue, 31, should have defended his commitment Sam Goodmanbut escaped with an eye injury. It was as lackluster a fight as the one with Kim, and the fans weren’t interested.
Light options
It’s unclear why Naoya stubbornly chooses to stay at rank 122 to fight obscure opposition instead of moving up to rank 126 to face these assassins:
– Rafael Espinoza
– Rey Vargas
– Bruce Carrington
– Angelo Leo
– Nick Ball
– Brandon Figueroa
– Sulaiman Segawa
– Otabek Kholmatov
The answer is pretty obvious as to why Inoue chooses not to move to featherweight. It’s too hard. You can argue that Naoya doesn’t want to lose, obviously, and see the bottom of his career fall out. Can’t blame him for the easy money that comes without Inoue taking any risk. I would probably do the same. It’s better than working for a living.
Don’t take risks, make money easily and feast off the file mignon soft opposition the next ten years before retirement. It’s weak, obviously, but better than getting knocked out at featherweight against one of the killers.
