Naoya Inoue returns to the United States for the first time in four years as he locks horns with 26-1 Ramon Cardenas.
Naoya Inoue has already cemented himself into the pound-for-pound lists of many, but continues his path to greatness in a fight with Ramon Cardenas on Sunday in Las Vegas.
A win over Cardenas will set up a fight with MJ Akhmadaliev, or a match-up with Nick Ball, who Inoue mocked after his last win.
However, some fans have criticized Inoue’s choice of opponent, as Cardenas’ sole loss came embarrassingly at the hands of a journeyman.
Naoya Inoue’s opponent Ramon Cardenas lost to 14-9-1 journeyman in 2017
Back in 2017, when Cardenas was 12-0 as a fighter he faced Danny Flores, a 14-9-1 journeyman.
Cardenas and Flores fought for 10 rounds, and it seemed Cardenas’ ceiling was found after he was delivered a majority decision loss to the journeyman.
Flores had gone eight fights without a single victory (seven losses, one draw) before facing Cardenas, and lost his next 17 fights after that.
Cardenas is Flores only win in 26 fights and nine years. He did bounce back from the loss, and hasn’t tasted defeat since, though fans are still critical of Inoue, who Tank praised, for picking Cardenas as his next foe.
Naoya Inoue has been dropped just once in his career
Inoue, who KO’d Michael Dasmarinas in his last Vegas outing, is nicknamed ‘The Monster’ and, until recently, seemed almost impenetrable, an unstoppable force immune to anything his opponents tried. That was until he faced Luis Nery this time last year.
35-1 Nery challenged for 26-0 Inoue’s super-bantamweight titles in the Tokyo Dome in Japan. The crowd was left stunned when Nery dropped Inoue in the very first round.
Inoue kept his composure and got back into the fight, going on to stop Nery in the sixth round.
Inoue had stopped Stephen Fulton two fights prior, and Fulton’s mom had a cut-throat reaction to his loss.