In a year with plenty of strong candidates for the fight of the year, my money is on Inoue-Donaire and it's going to take one hell of a fight in the waning weeks of 2019 to take that title away- Inoue-Donaire was that good.
Inoue's win unified the IBF title that he entered the fight holding, added the WBA title formerly held by Donaire, as well as the bonus cash for winning the World Boxing Super Series tournament.
Inoue was a heavy favorite to win the fight from his home country and most (me included) thought that Inoue could actually hurt the aging Donaire, who is on the downside of a career that will eventually land him in the hall of fame.
This fight had it all- action, both men fighting through facial adversity (Inoue dealt with a cut over his right eye, while Donaire dealt with both of his eyes swelling), constant shifts in momentum, and the storyline of the young lion at his peak and ready to take the final step into stardom against the aging gunslinger that had been counted out before the fight started, yet was prepared to fire one final shot.
Inoue looked like he was going to end the fight in the fifth when he was landing strong rights and had Donaire backing up, but Donaire had his moments too with the best rounds of the fight in the eighth and ninth, almost knocking Inoue down in the ninth.
The pendulum swung back towards Inoue again in the tenth, stunning Donaire and looking to finish the former champion off for the evening.
Inoue would try, but as he did so the stage was set for a round of the year contender.
Rather than be overwhelmed by the powerful Inoue or simply collect a paycheck for boxing cautiously, it was the once-great Donaire that made this fight what it was as it was Donaire that gave almost as good as he got and it was Donaire that fought on when he could have conceded after a valiant effort and called it a day.
When I watched Donaire finally knocked to a knee by an Inoue body shot in the eleventh round, you could almost read the story of the fight written- "a gritty Nonito Donaire finally was worn down by the younger, stronger, faster Naoya Inoue".
And honestly, the count by referee Ernie Sharif (Whom I remember from his boxing career) was very close to counting Donaire out, but then you could hear "My Way" in the background as Inoue charged in and was ready to close the curtain, it was the badly hurt Donaire firing back and for a brief second, Donaire stunned Inoue and thoughts of Corrales-Castillo began to float through my mind.
Inoue then turned the tide again and had Donaire in trouble late in the round.
Both fighters landed heavily in the final round in exchanges that were filled with action before the decision.
I scored Inoue a 115-112 winner (7-5 in rounds with the knockdown) and I thought two of the three cards were a little wide (114-113 was fine, but 116-111 and 117-109 were off-base), but the winner was correct and that's the main thing.
After the fight, Inoue announced an agreement with Top Rank which will see him fight twice in the US next year and once at home in Japan.
Donaire would be best suited to consider retirement off such a terrific fight as I'm not sure that he can repeat the performance in a rematch and at 37 the time seems to be right to walk away
The natural next fight for Inoue would be a unification fight with Nordine Oubaali, who successfully defended his WBC belt with a unanimous decision over Takuma Inoue, the younger brother of Naoya, in the co-main event.
I scored Oubaali a 117-110 winner over Inoue, who showed heart against Oubaali, but nowhere near his older brother's punching power. although he did have Oubaali somewhat in trouble in the final round.
Oubaali knocked Inoue down in the fourth round for the fight's only knockdown.
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