Boxing Challenge

     Early Tuesday morning, the two fighters responsible for the 2019 fight of the year will step into the same ring in Saitama, Japan for the second time against one another two and a half years later for the rarest of all bouts- a rematch that involves division unification with another championship at stake that was not in the first match yet the same titles are on the table from the first fight.

In the interim between their epic first fight, Nonito Donaire, who most thought had made his final career stand in a tremendous effort in losing via unanimous decision to Naoya Inoue, knocked out Nordine Oubaali in four rounds to win the WBC bantamweight title and defended in against countryman Reymart Gaballo with a fourth-round knockout and made a second fight a more attractive pairing by going out and earning it.

Naoya Inoye has defended his WBA and IBF titles three times but only once against a top challenger in a seventh-round knockout of Andrew Moloney, and even though Inoue has fought three times since to Donaire's two, Donaire's opponents were of better quality and maybe even more impressive outing than that of the "Monster".

And despite Inoue winning the first fight and scoring the fight's only knockdown, it can be argued that the younger fighter took the more severe beating as Inoue exited the fight with a broken orbital bone and a broken nose with Donaire- but with all of that going in Donaire's favor, the decision was unanimous and unquestioned.

Inoue is still in his prime at 29 and no matter how often the 39-year-old Donaire turns back the clock in an unexpected manner, sooner or later the clock catches all men.

So the question is can Donaire do anything different or improve on what worked in their first fight?

If he can, it could set up the left hook that finished Oubaali and Gaballo and pull an upset for the ages but you would have to be a sentimentalist to pick Donaire in this one.

However, some fighters are fated to fight well against others no matter when in their career the fights take place and Nonito Donaire seems to be in that niche with Naoya Inoue.

This should be another good one from Saitama Tuesday morning.

Boxing Challenge

Unification WBA/IBF- WBC Bantamweight Titles. 12 Rds 

Naoya Inoue vs Nonito Donaire

R.L: Inoue KO 9

TRS and V.S: Inoue Unanimous Decision