Donaire had won both of his fights after losing a unanimous but very competitive decision to Inoue, winning the WBC title along with defending against his mandatory challenger and all the while chasing the Inoue rematch, while Inoue had defeated Jason Moloney and two lesser rated contenders in the interim.
Donaire landed the biggest shot early when he appeared to stun Inoue with a left hook but with seconds remaining in the opening round, Inoue landed a right hand that dropped Donaire to the canvas, and had there been even a few more seconds remaining in the round, Inoue may have finished his opponent in the initial round.
Donaire was too proud to be counted out and beat the count of the referee but was not fit to continue as
the referee ended the fight.
The 39-year-old deserves credit for that and I'm still not sure that he isn't the second-best bantamweight in the world even after this blitz from Inoue.
As for the Monster, he called for newly crowned WBO champion Paul Butler after the fight to fully unify the division, and while I understand why Inoue wants to fully unify for historical purposes and support him in doing so, I don't think anyone outside of Butler that thinks that Butler has a snowball's chance in the tropics of holding off the Monster for more than a few rounds.
After the expected annihilation of Butler, I don't see anyone in the bantamweight division that has a remote chance against Inoue other than maybe former WBO champion John Riel Casimero, who was stripped of the title before a scheduled fight with Butler and had a unification fight with Inoue canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Inoue could either face one of the two future Hall of Famers that currently reside in the 115-pound division, WBA champion Juan Francisco Estrada or Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez but both would likely not have the strength to beat Inoue and would essentially be given a gold watch and one final large payday in such a fight.
WBC 115-pound champion Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez has the talent level but he just moved up to 115 pounds and doesn't have the needed experience yet to make another leap so quickly against Inoue.
Inoue could move up to junior featherweight and a fight against either WBC and WBO champion Stephen Fulton or WBA/ IBF champion MJ Akhmadaliev would have some appeal-especially if Fulton is able to get his wish for the full unification at 122 pounds against Akhmadaliev.
Fulton seems to match up well with Inoue but his fight against the similarly aggressive Brandon Figueroa was very close and Inoue is a different level of boxer than Figueroa.
A unified bantamweight champion against a unified junior featherweight king might be the biggest fight under featherweight in decades- IF promotional interests can work together to get a contract signed.
No matter what the future holds for Naoya Inoue, this victory over Nonito Donaire cements him at or near the top of the pound-for-pound list, and with several interesting fights in his future, the force that is known as the Monster should be around for quite some time.
Boxing Challenge
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