inoue retakes #1 P4P ring mag

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

What Inoue is missing is big names on his resume. Popular fighters, especially in the West, guys that can actually draw. Without securing those big fights it's hard to remain P4P king. The biggest name on his resume is Donaire (2x). Unfortunately his profile is nowhere near that of an Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury. For a little guy he was quite popular in his day. It's just that he was old when Inoue beat him. Still relevant at the top of the division, but old.

What Inoue might have to do is see if someone like Tank or Loma is interested in dropping back down to 130 to fight him. There are no other names that recognizable at 122, 126 or 130 currently. Years ago he did mention potentially fighting Loma at or around that weight if I recall correctly. Let's face it. The Paul Butlers & Luis Nerys of the world just ain't gonna cut it anymore. Not with Usyk & Bud also competing with him in the P4P race.

 

[baconCrunch]

Fury did look ridiculously bad against Ngannou. That said it was a 10 round non-championship fight against someone he didn't even train for. While there's really no excuse to explain how bad he looked the version of Fury we saw a few days ago was focused, looked very fast, and sharp looking. Plus Usyk beat Joshua twice and we saw what he did to Ngannou. He smashed him in 2 rounds without taking any damage.

fury did look a lot more crisp. credit where it’s due.

but the chin did not… it’s def on the decline.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

fury did look a lot more crisp. credit where it’s due.

but the chin did not… it’s def on the decline.

I think Fury's punch resistance is just about out. That counter combination from Usyk that initially hurt him was beautiful though. Lightning quick, very well-timed, and bang on the button.

 

[moosaev]

fury did look a lot more crisp. credit where it’s due.

but the chin did not… it’s def on the decline.

I don’t think Fury’s chin declined, he’s always been susceptible to getting hit and dropped. People think his defense is much better than it is for some reason.

 

[Blastbeat]

What Inoue is missing is big names on his resume. Popular fighters, especially in the West, guys that can actually draw. Without securing those big fights it's hard to remain P4P king. The biggest name on his resume is Donaire (2x). Unfortunately his profile is nowhere near that of an Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury. For a little guy he was quite popular in his day. It's just that he was old when Inoue beat him. Still relevant at the top of the division, but old.

What Inoue might have to do is see if someone like Tank or Loma is interested in dropping back down to 130 to fight him. There are no other names that recognizable at 122, 126 or 130 currently. Years ago he did mention potentially fighting Loma at or around that weight if I recall correctly. Let's face it. The Paul Butlers & Luis Nerys of the world just ain't gonna cut it anymore. Not with Usyk & Bud also competing with him in the P4P race.

thats gonna be especially hard because the Western world by and large doesnt follow the lower weights. you have posters on here who entirely disregard them. how can you fight a notable star from a weight class when the whole weight class isn't even a thought to Western boxing fans?
i honestly dont think Inoue will ever be a huge star in the west or fully appreciated because of his size. which is a shame.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

I don’t think Fury’s chin declined, he’s always been susceptible to getting hit and dropped. People think his defense is much better than it is for some reason.

True but I don't recall him getting buzzed so easily in any of his other fights. It's not like Usyk is even a puncher. He is accurate though with good timing and his power is likely underrated. Another thing he's good at is surprising opponents with shots. Blindsiding them. That could explain it since the ones you don't see hurt fighters the most.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

thats gonna be especially hard because the Western world by and large doesnt follow the lower weights. you have posters on here who entirely disregard them. how can you fight a notable star from a weight class when the whole weight class isn't even a thought to Western boxing fans?
i honestly dont think Inoue will ever be a huge star in the west or fully appreciated because of his size. which is a shame.

It will be hard. His only real shot is to fight Tank or Loma at 130 or a lower catchweight if possible. One thing that Inoue could do is fight abroad. Most of his fights have been at home in Japan. He should travel more and increase his international (or North American) profile. His power would mean that he wouldn't have to be as worried about getting shorted on the cards elsewhere. He finishes practically every fight anyway so the only possible concern might be the reffing. That's it.

 

[moosaev]

True but I don't recall him getting buzzed so easily in any of his other fights. It's not like Usyk is even a puncher. He is accurate though with good timing and his power is likely underrated. Another thing he's good at is surprising opponents with shots. Blindsiding them. That could explain it since the ones you don't see hurt fighters the most.

Usyk also put on some muscle for this fight and was sitting down on his punches more,...seemed to be part of his strategy. I think he knew he'd have to hurt Fury to beat him.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

Usyk also put on some muscle for this fight and was sitting down on his punches more,...seemed to be part of his strategy. I think he knew he'd have to hurt Fury to beat him.

True. He did add a couple pounds of muscle and threw with some real spite. That big left hand he landed on Fury's nose in the 8th looked like it might've broken it. The tide had turned from that point on and we know what happened in the next round.

 

[baconCrunch]

I don’t think Fury’s chin declined, he’s always been susceptible to getting hit and dropped. People think his defense is much better than it is for some reason.

well, in Fury’s last 5 fights, he’s been knocked down 4x.
that's an extremely high rate, no matter how you look at it.

not even comparable to his previous track record.

 

[FlowchartRog]

fury did look a lot more crisp. credit where it’s due.

but the chin did not… it’s def on the decline.

Not sure about that. He's always been "hurtable", being legimitately knocked down and hurt by another cruiserweight in Cunningham way back when. He just has freakishly good recovery.

I expected Usyk to hurt him and he did.

And yep like KMB said, I don't think you can discredit Usyk's win because Fury looked like a bum in his previous fight. Every fight is different and Fury has always been hot and cold. That was a disgraceful performance yes, in a fight he clearly didn't take seriously.

The version that showed up on Saturday looked as good as Fury gets imho, so Usyk deserves full credit. It was an excellent win.

 

[Mujeriego]

thats gonna be especially hard because the Western world by and large doesnt follow the lower weights. you have posters on here who entirely disregard them. how can you fight a notable star from a weight class when the whole weight class isn't even a thought to Western boxing fans?
i honestly dont think Inoue will ever be a huge star in the west or fully appreciated because of his size. which is a shame.

Not alot of American fighters worth a shit below 135.

 

[Mujeriego]

It will be hard. His only real shot is to fight Tank or Loma at 130 or a lower catchweight if possible. One thing that Inoue could do is fight abroad. Most of his fights have been at home in Japan. He should travel more and increase his international (or North American) profile. His power would mean that he wouldn't have to be as worried about getting shorted on the cards elsewhere. He finishes practically every fight anyway so the only possible concern might be the reffing. That's it.

So Tank can claim he dethorned the Monster on some nonsense, we dont need that shit.

 

[moosaev]

well, in Fury’s last 5 fights, he’s been knocked down 4x.
that's an extremely high rate, no matter how you look at it.

not even comparable to his previous track record.

It’s a mixture of Fury fighting better competition and not taking his career seriously (Ngannou).

 

[HuskySamoan]

Any superfights on the cards for him though?

It's tough, there's not really any superfights for Noaya at Featherweight or Super Feather, so he'd have to jump all the way up to Lightweight. He could try to do a Lomachenko bout at like Super Feather or maybe an eventual showdown with Noaya and his countryman Junto Nakatani. But I think Noaya trying to go to Lightweight for a Tank/Shakur/Garcia type fight is not too realistic. He can definitely unify at Featherweight though.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

So Tank can claim he dethorned the Monster on some nonsense, we dont need that shit.

Inoue has to get a win over a recognizable name. It doesn't really matter who. Right now Tank & Loma are the two biggest names closest to him and they both used to fight at 130. It'd be a big ask from Inoue but he'll have to beat one of them to elevate his profile. Pac was the P4P king, like Inoue arguably is now, when he jumped up a couple divisions to fight Oscar.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

well, in Fury’s last 5 fights, he’s been knocked down 4x.
that's an extremely high rate, no matter how you look at it.

not even comparable to his previous track record.

Fury has been dropped a lot. We've had other heavyweight champs get knocked down even more frequently though. Floyd Patterson for instance. He hit the canvas 20 times in his career. In the first Johansson fight alone he was dropped a total of 7 times. By comparison Fury's hit the canvas 8 times over the course of his career (including the technical knockdown he just suffered against Usyk).

Regardless, Fury was still favored by the bookies to beat Usyk. So was Joshua in the first fight. Usyk was the underdog in both and he went on to pull it out.

 

[Jonny Ninja]

Usyk for me. Inoue isnt beating guys 40lbs heavier than he is. Outside of that their achievements in the pro game are fairly similar. There is no doubt that they are 1 & 2. No one else is even close

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

Usyk for me. Inoue isnt beating guys 40lbs heavier than he is. Outside of that their achievements in the pro game are fairly similar. There is no doubt that they are 1 & 2. No one else is even close

I did the math. Usyk gave up roughly 18% of his body weight against Fury. About 40 lbs. For Inoue to do the equivalent he'd have to beat a top level opponent around 22 lbs heavier. Obviously there's more to size than weight though. Fury's frame is so much bigger than Usyk's it's laughable. He absolutely dwarfs him.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

Bad Left Hook has a P4P poll up. Usyk is currently winning it with Inoue in second and Bud in third place. You guys should go vote.

Who is boxing’s pound-for-pound king? Inoue, Usyk, and Crawford have made their cases