Butler's offense disappeared after the first few rounds and without the desire to move forward against the bombs of Inoue, the only question became could Butler survive the entire twelve-round distance?
Inoue attempted to make the fight entertaining as Butler retreated including imitating the famous Roy Jones "chicken" stance with both hands behind his back.
Just as it seemed that Butler would possibly last through the twelve rounds, Inoue stepped up his body attack and drove Butler to his knees in a corner.
The referee ended the fight but Butler wasn't threatening to beat the count, so the fight was going to end even if Butler had been given a chance to rise.
The Inoue victory was not only the first in the four-title era to unify the bantamweight division, but the division also was never unified in the three-title generation, and the first fully unified champion at 118 pounds since the WBC stripped Enrique Pinder in 1973.
Inoue will almost definitely vacate his titles and move to junior featherweight but I'm not sure what big fights await him.
Stephen Fulton holds the WBC and WBO titles but plans a move up to featherweight for a Brandon Figueroa rematch and even if not, Fulton fights for PBC which means unless Inoue fought Fulton on Showtime, that fight wouldn't happen.
MJ Akhmadaliev holds the WBA and IBF titles and last I heard, he was affiliated with Matchroom, which makes an Inoue possible as the two companies have worked together in the past but in this case, Akhmadaliev would likely have to fight Inoue on an ESPN platform and would be unlikely to go to Japan to face "The Monster".
While fans would love to see Inoue against either, I'm not sure the money (Fulton) or motivation (either) would be enough to make a match.
The most likely outcome would be that Fulton would vacate his two titles after a Figueroa fight and Inoue would be immediately installed as an entrant in a WBO vacant title fight as a WBO champion that gave up his title.
In the WBO, the top two contenders are both with PBC (Ra'eese Aleem and Luis Nery) and I doubt either would face Inoue for the reason answered above.
The third contender and most likely for Inoue is former IBF junior bantamweight and WBO bantamweight champion Zolani Tete, who has won two straight since losing his title to John Riel Casimero in 2019.
Tete's chin isn't the best although he may last a few rounds with his height and reach advantage, I'd think that Inoue would likely score an early and spectacular knockout.
I'm hoping for a big 2023 for Naoya Inoue but I have a feeling that we will still remain wanting more than boxing fans receive.
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