Boxing Challenge: Inoue survives knockdown

        "The Monster" was dented in the initial round by Luis Nery's left hook that knocked down Naoya Inoue in the first round for the first time in his career.

But Inoue responded with a left hook of his own in the second round that dropped Nery to the canvas and while Nery had his moments, Inoue dominated after the first round, added another knockdown in the fifth before finishing Nery in the sixth with a right hand that sprawled the challenger across the bottom rope to retain all four junior featherweight titles.

Nery, a former WBC bantamweight and junior featherweight champion, came with his best effort and landed his share of left hooks but Inoue was too fast and out of Nery's league, which says a lot as Nery received some consideration for top ten pound for pound a few years ago and entered the fight with only one loss since (a ninth-round knockout loss to Brandon Figueroa).

Naoya Inoue is just too good and is expected to face Australia's Sam Goodman in a fall fight that will count as one of Inoue's mandatory defenses.

In the co-feature, Yoshiki Takei completed the Japanese takeover of the bantamweight division with a unanimous decision win over Jason Moloney to take Moloney's WBO title.

All four of the titles in the 118-pound division now reside in the land of the Rising Sun with four different champions.

Takei lost a point in the second round for a low blow but controlled Moloney for most of the fight, although Moloney hurt Takei badly late in the final round, and had there been a round thirteen, Moloney may have been able to stop Takei but alas that round never occurred.

Takei won on the cards by scores of 116-111 times two and 117-110, my scorecard read 116-111.

WBA bantamweight champion Takuma Inoue retained his title by a unanimous decision over Sho Ishida but like his brother later in the evening, was knocked down in the first round.

Ishida did well early and seemed to be walking Inoue down but a busted nose that bled throughout the fight hampered the challenger.

The scorecards for Inoue were 118-109 times two and 116-111, while my card read 117-110.

In the cards opener, Seigo Yuri Akai retained his WBA flyweight title with a unanimous decision over Taku Kuwahara, who lost the second fight of his career, both to Akai.

Akai's winning scorecards were 118-110 and 117-111 times two with the latter score the same as my card.

There isn't a boxing challenge for this as I didn't have time to work on a preview or even post selections and I don't think it's fair for the competition to have me knowing my picks without putting them up on the site.

I wouldn't cheat but it removes any controversy.