Naoya Inoue has gone the full distance with just two men, one of whom went on to become the oldest bantamweight world champion in boxing.
Naoya Inoue boasts 27 knockouts to his 30 wins and has gone 12 rounds with two men.
The first was David Carmona in 2016, and the second was the only man Inoue has faced twice in his career, a durable Filipino warrior who not only took him the distance in 2019, but picked up rounds against the Japanese ‘Monster’.
Despite losing to Inoue, the ‘Filipino Flash’ went on to win a title in his very next fight, at the age of 38.
Nonito Donaire won a world title at 38 years old after losing to Naoya Inoue
In 2019, in the final of the World Boxing Super Series, Inoue defeated Donaire by unanimous decision, handing the veteran his sixth defeat in 46 fights. Inoue let Donaire borrow his trophy to show to his kids.
Donaire had been beaten by Carl Frampton, Guillermo Rigondeaux (one of boxing’s best amateurs), and three others, but was a durable and talented fighter nonetheless.
In 2021, nearly two years after his loss to Inoue, who was dropped by Ramon Cardenas in his last fight, Donaire faced Nordine Oubaali for the WBC bantamweight title.
He was 38 at the time, and broke records when he became the oldest bantamweight world champion by beating Oubaali via fourth-round stoppage.
Nonito Donaire and Naoya Inoue’s rematch was very different to their first encounter
In 2022, in what would turn out to be Donaire’s penultimate fight, the Filipino fighter was given a rematch against Inoue, who was beaten twice by Yosbany Veitia as an amateur, owing to his performance the first time round.
Donaire, 39 at the time, was unable to reproduce his performance and was instead stopped in a two-round blitz by the ‘Monster’, who took Donaire’s WBC title, dashing his dreams of a unification, and ultimately showing him that it was time to retire.