Well, one Inoue has done his job. Today at the cavernous Dome in Tokyo, Takuma Inoue, younger brother of Naoya and a real talent in his own right, suffered a flash knockdown before coming on strong to defeat countryman Sho Ishida by wide 12 round unanimous decision.
Scores were 118-109, 118-109, and a little closer 116-111. Takuma, who banked his second title defence today, is now 20-1(5). Ishida, who had won five on the bounce after his thrilling but losing battle with Kosei Tanaka, falls to 34-4(17). Ishida has never been stopped.
32 year old Ishida, the older man by four years, got off to a great start, the taller man dropping the defending champ with a crisp, accurate jab to the head. It was a flash knockdown and Inoue was not seriously hurt. Still, Ishida showed he was here to win.
But Tanaka got into his groove fully in the third and Ishida, his nose bleeding and continuing to pour all night, was unable to capitalise on his early success. Inoue boxed quite brilliantly today, his fast and accurate hands serving him well along with his educated foot movement.
Ishida doggedly continued to come forward, but he was unable to get Inoue out of his groove. Ishida had a good fifth round, but otherwise it was pretty much all Inoue. Really looking impressive today, Inoue looks to have come into his own, with him perhaps having reached his prime years.
Ishida, his nose dripping blood, had some further success in round 10, and there was some exciting trading in the 11th. Ishida gave it one last effort in the final seconds of the last round, this to his credit. But Inoue had the win in the bag and everyone knew it.
A fine showing from the younger Inoue. Now, can “Monster” Inoue take care of business against a determined Luis Nery in today’s main event?
The Tokyo Dome is of course the legendary venue that played host to THE biggest upset ever seen in boxing history, this the shockingly unbelievable KO James Buster Douglas scored over Mike Tyson some 34 years ago!