Full Report: Monster Inoue sinks Kim

Inoue Kim01 1

By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Unbeaten undisputed super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (29-0, 26 KOs), 121.75, successfully kept his belts as he maintained the pressure from the start and finally scored a fine knockout victory over emergency substitute WBO#11 Ye-Joon Kim (21-3-2, 13 KOs), 121.75, at 2:25 of the fourth round on Friday at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan. Inoue probed the Korean switch-hitter who began to fight in a southpaw stance for the first three rounds. Naoya, as he said after the fight, attempted to have Kim land some shots to the face on purpose to measure his power—though it was a dangerous strategy. The fourth round, however, saw Inoue start his engine, connected with his trade-mark body shots and then exploded a destructive left-right combination. Down he went. Kim tried to raise himself but his damage was so heavy that he had to listen to the referee Mark Nelson’s fatal ten on the deck.

The official tallies were quite identical before the trick happened—all 30-27 in favor of Naoya—scored by Tim Cheatham (representing the WBC, US), Jose Manzur (WBA, Mexico) and Ferenc Budai (WBO, Hungary).

Inoue was intelligent enough to demonstrate Kim’s possibility of hitting the target so that Kim would be more aggressive than defensive with his tight peek-a-boo guard. Should he have covered up too tightly, even Inoue would have had a problem in connecting punches in precision—as he had experienced against TJ Doheny or Paul Butler. We at first wondered why he got hit more than usual in previous bouts. But that’s his strategy to bring home the bacon early. We wish, however, he will not try it again against a more formidable opposition.

Boxingwise, December was a bizarre month. The Naoya Inoue-Sam Goodman undisputed 122-pount title bout scheduled on December 24 and the Fernando Martinez-Kazuto Ioka WBA 115-pound title go on New Year’s Eve had been both cancelled because Goodman sustained a gash in his final sparring and Martinez suffered a coronavirus infection just prior to his appearance here in Japan. The former, Inoue vs. Goodman, was re-scheduled a month later on January 24, but the Aussie again had the left optic cut more seriously than in his previous laceration. Why not use a headgear made in Japan? It’s not professional to suffer a same gash at the same optic twice to finally cancel his world title shot.

The most disappointed was Monster Inoue himself. Why? He eagerly wished to demonstrate his technical excellence rather than his vaunted power punching in outjabbing, outspeeding, outsmarting and/or outmaneuvering Goodman. In short, he wanted to have his skills and smartness more evaluated than his brutal power. There’s no use to cry over split eyebrow. Recover and play it again, Sam.

After the first postponement from Christmas Eve, the promoter Hideyuki Ohashi already prepared a world-rated substitute in WBO#11 Ye-Joon Kim since Kim might have a considerable commercial value on behalf of Goodman due to the traditional Japan-Korea rivalry such as the well-known Mexico-Puerto Rico rivalry.

We, in Japan, remember a historical episode in a well-known fact that world top contender Jesus Pimentel abruptly cancelled his coming to Japan to have an ambitious and anticipated shot at the then world bantamweight kingpin Fighting Harada in 1968. Australian Lionel Rose eventually substituted for Pimentel, and produced a great upset in dethroning the dejected Harada (so eager to face and defeat highly regarded KO artist Pimentel) to cause a sensation. But Ye-Joon Kim wasn’t Lionel Rose, but Kim gamely challenged the top dog Naoya. We may praise Kim having performed his duty as the substitute.

Top Rank CEO Bob Arum climbed up to the ring and disclosed his plan on Monster Inoue’s next campaign. “I will prepare Inoue to appear in Las Vegas next with pleasure.” Monster Naoya also said in the ring, “This year I would like to fight abroad to extend my activity to the world.” We look forward to watching his bright future.

Supervisors: WBC Edgardo Lopez (Puerto Rico), WBA Jose Oliver Gomez (Panama), IBF Tsuyoshi Yasukochi (Japan) and WBO Leon Panoncillo (US)

Promoter: Ohashi Promotions in association with Teiken Promotions and Top Rank Inc.

Attendance: 15,000 (capacity crowd at the Ariake Arena)

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