I'll be watching as much as I can from the road office and will fill in what I miss when I arrive home.
The tournament final will also unify Donaire's WBA title with that of Inoue's IBF championship, but unless you happen to have some time in the morning between 5 and 8 AM, you may have to wait to watch it as the bout will take place from Saitama Japan with Inoue as the fan-favorite.
WBA champion Donaire has been fortunate in the tournament after dropping in weight from the featherweight division to enter the bracket, winning his WBA title when champion Ryan Burnett injured his back when throwing a punch and was unable to continue and in the semi-finals Donaire faced late replacement, Stephon Young, when WBO champion Zolani Tete pulled out with an injury.
Under those circumstances. the soon to be 37 years old Donaire is somewhat of an unknown factor at this stage of his career.
Inoue is arguably the most electrifying fighter in the game and blew through his opponents in a combined three rounds and knocked out the talented Emmanuel Rodriguez in two rounds in his last fight to win the IBF title.
This sets up to be a coronation in several ways for Inoue and all things considered, I just don't see a way that Donaire wins this fight unless Inoue has a total collapse or his chin proves to be less than sturdy.
I'm leery of saying this considering that Donaire is a hall of fame level boxer, but I'm almost afraid of Donaire getting hurt in this fight.
The co-feature will see the WBC title in the division defended as champion Nordine Oubaali takes on Takuma Inoue, the younger brother of Naoya.
Takuma has a far different style than the attacking Naoya, as he has only three knockouts in his thirteen wins.
Oubaali has 12 KOs in his 16 wins without a loss and won the title in a unanimous decision upset in
January over Rau'Shee Warren to fill the vacancy left by the stripping of Luis Nery.
Oubaali defended successfully with a stoppage of Arthur Villanueva in July.
This appears to be a win-win situation as a Inoue win would give three of the four titles to a member of the Inoue family and an Oubaali victory would make an interesting three title unification between Naoya Inoue (Should he win) and the conqueror of his brother.
In the boxing challenge, I lead Ramon Malpica 265-232.
Unification WBA-IBF Bantamweight titles/ World Boxing Super Series Final
Nonito Donaire vs Naoya Inoue
R.L: Inoue KO 5
TRS: Inoue KO 3
WBC Bantamweight Title. 12 Rds
Nordine Oubaali vs Takuma Inoue
Both: Oubaali Unanimous Decision
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