Naoya Inoue has earned his ‘Monster’ nickname through his destructive combination of skill, power, and resilience, but there was one man who he just couldn’t beat.
Naoya Inoue is now 30-0 after a devastating beatdown of Ramon Cardenas. He was forced to overcome the second scare of his career, as Inoue was dropped in round two against Cardenas.
Inoue managed to recover and get the job done, something he was unable to do in all of his amateur fights, losing five times, twice to one man.
Naoya Inoue couldn’t beat 203-fight Yosbany Veitia
Inoue, who was wobbled by Nonito Donaire, lost five times as an amateur. One of those losses came against Taro Hayashida, who Inoue went on to beat, evening the score.
Two others came against Masoud Rigi in the Asian Youth Championships semi-final, and Birzhan Zhakypov in the Asian Olympic Qualifying Tournament. This was Inoue’s final amateur bout.
But the one man to beat Inoue, who KO’d Stephen Fulton, twice, was Yosbany Veitia, a Cuban boxer who was reportedly just 8-2 when he first faced the Japanese fighter in 2010.
Veitia won on points and would face Inoue again a year later in the preliminary round of the World Championships. Now 34-9, Veitia won again on points.
Veitia’s last amateur fight was in 2024, and saw him lose for the 27th time in his 203-fight long career.
Yosbany Veitia’s Olympic dreams were crushed by one rising Brit
In one of Veitia’s later fights, he faced Galal Yafai in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Olympics.
Veitia and Yafai had fought once before, in 2019, when Yafai won a unanimous decision over Veitia in Russia.
The rematch was closer, though still ended in Yafai’s favor by split decision, forcing Veitia to go home without a medal.