Naoya Inoue is called ‘The Monster’ for a reason, with knockout wins over 26 of his 29 opponents.
Naoya Inoue has stopped all but three of his opponents, and has been taken the twelve-round distance just twice.
One of these was Nonito Donaire, who Inoue stopped in just the second round of their rematch. Inoue let Donaire borrow his trophy to take home to his son’s, despite falling short in both their fights.
Following the Donaire rematch, Inoue unified the bantamweight titles with a superb performance against Paul Butler, before facing what many expected to be the toughest test of his career.
“I felt like I hated her”… Stephen Fulton on mom’s reaction to Naoya Inoue KO defeat
In 2023, Inoue moved up in weight to face Stephen ‘Cool Boy Steph’ Fulton, a 21-0 unified world champion.
The fight was billed as the closest fight to a 50/50 Inoue had had so far, with Fulton being the bigger man and an impressively skilled boxer.
Inoue, who Gervonta Davis praised, defied any doubters, putting on a dominant performance and destroying Fulton in the eighth round.
In an interview with Andre Ward, Fulton spoke on the loss, stating it was his mother’s reaction to it that hurt more than the loss itself:
“I wasn’t out, the fight wasn’t over yet, but in the midst of me getting dropped the first time, [my mom] called my sisters and said ‘Damn, there go my house’.”
Fulton elaborated: “I cried about that, and plenty times I felt like I hated her but I know I didn’t.”
Naoya Inoue followed his win over Stephen Fulton with four brutal knockouts
After his big win in 2023, Inoue faced 37-3 Marlon Tapales later that same year. Going into the tenth round Tapales had won just one round on one scorecard, two on another, and none on the third. He was stopped that round.
This fight saw Inoue became a two-time undisputed champion.
In his first fight of 2024, Inoue faced adversity against 35-1 Luis Nery, who dropped Inoue for the first time in his career in round one. Inoue kept his composure, picked himself up, and fought on, stopping Nery in the sixth.
Also in 2024, Inoue stopped the durable TJ Doheny in seven rounds, before making his 2025 debut against late-replacement Ye Joon Kim, who Inoue blitzed in just four rounds.
Doheny was recently beaten by Nick Ball, who Inoue mocked ahead of a potential fight between the pair.
Inoue will face Ramon Cardenas in Las Vegas in May. Last time he was in Vegas, Inoue shut down Michael Dasmarinas with a brutal body shot.