Naoya Inoue survives a first-round knockdown to knock out challenger Luis Nery within the sixth spherical in entrance of 45,000 followers.
Japan’s undisputed tremendous bantamweight world champion, Naoya Inoue, has survived an early scare to cease Mexico’s Luis Nery within the sixth spherical on the Tokyo Dome and defend his titles.
Followers on the well-known venue, which seats greater than 45,000 folks, have been shocked on Monday when Nery floored the unbeaten “Monster” within the first spherical with an enormous left.
However Inoue acquired up and knocked his Mexican opponent down within the following spherical and despatched him to the canvas once more within the fifth earlier than ending him off with a proper hook within the sixth.
“It was an amazing feeling to knock him down, however how about that shock within the first spherical?” the 31-year-old Inoue requested.
“As a boxer, when that occurs to you, it fires you up. It gave me a variety of vitality.”
It was the primary boxing occasion to be held on the Tokyo Dome since 42-1 underdog James “Buster” Douglas knocked out unbeaten heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in February 1990 in one of many sport’s largest upsets.
“There was a variety of stress on me as the primary occasion within the first boxing at Tokyo Dome in 34 years, but it surely gave me power,” Inoue stated.
Inoue took his file to 27-0 with 24 wins by knockout.
It was his first battle since turning into the undisputed tremendous bantamweight world champion in December.
He’s simply the second man to turn out to be undisputed world champion at two completely different weights because the four-belt period started in 2004. American Terence Crawford was the primary.
Followers on the Tokyo Dome gave the 31-year-old a rapturous welcome as he entered the cavernous venue with all 4 world championship belts up for grabs.
An enormous upset regarded prefer it may very well be on the playing cards when Nery despatched the champion sprawling.
Nevertheless it appeared to energise Inoue, and he got here flying out of his nook to ship Nery down within the second spherical.
Inoue continued to land ferocious blows, and he despatched his opponent to the canvas once more with a left hook within the fifth spherical.
The referee stopped the battle after Inoue downed Nery for a 3rd time within the sixth spherical.
Nery, a former two-division world champion, was preventing in Japan for the primary time since he was stripped of his bantamweight world title in 2018 after failing to make weight for a bout there.
He was subsequently banned from preventing in Japan, however the nation’s Boxing Fee gave him the inexperienced gentle to compete towards Inoue.
Nery was booed when he was launched to the Tokyo Dome crowd.
The 29-year-old’s file fell to 35-2 with 27 KOs.
Inoue was preventing at tremendous bantamweight for under the third time after beating American Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales of the Philippines final yr for a clear sweep of the titles.
He moved up in weight class after turning into the primary undisputed bantamweight world champion since Panama’s Enrique Pinder in 1972.
Earlier, preventing on the undercard, Japan’s Yoshiki Takei beat Australian defending champion Jason Moloney by unanimous resolution to win the WBO bantamweight world title.
Takei began strongly earlier than Moloney got here again into the bout in his second title defence.
However the Japanese fighter, a former kickboxer who had gained all eight of his earlier boxing matches by knockout, took the title in entrance of a raucous crowd .
