Adding those titles to the WBC and WBO championships that Inoue owned entering the fight means that Inoue completely unified the division in the two fights that the Monster has fought in the weight class.
Inoue was expected to overpower Tapales but Tapales showed the willingness to engage with Inoue and took the power shots very well, even fighting back after a fourth-round knockdown and winning the seventh round on my card, which is rare against Inoue.
Still, even though Tapales fought much better than expected, he was overmatched by Inoue, who could be the best fighter in the world and if he is rated behind anyone, it's Terence Crawford and no one else.
Inoue announced his desire to stay in the division to defend his titles rather than vacate them almost immediately as he did with his bantamweight titles. He is expected to face former WBC bantamweight and super featherweight champion Luis Nery in the spring.
Nery is a fighter who was once rated by some as a top ten pound-for-pound fighter and has won four straight since suffering his only loss in 2021, a seventh-round knockout loss to Brandon Figueroa.
Nery will be the hardest puncher that Inoue has faced other than maybe Nonito Donaire but Nery is likely to have issues with the speed of Inoue and his chin gave out against Figueroa, it's hard to see him holding up against Inoue.
Naoya Inoue is a special fighter and has already stamped himself as a Hall of Famer.
The question is this- Who will be the fighter that truly pushes him to the limit?
I don't see anyone doing so at 122 pounds, is that fighter at 126 pounds?
Boxing Challenge
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