WBA/IBF bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (21-0, 18 KOs) destroyed Michael Dasmarinas (30-3-1, 20 KOs) in three rounds on Saturday night at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. Inoue dropped Dasmarinas with a body shot in round two and finished him with two more knockdowns from body shots in round three. Time was 2:45.
“Against the number one ranked fighter, Dasmarinas, I think I had a great win,” said Inoue. “I prepare myself to knock them out, whether with a head shot or a body shot. I came prepared and to get a win by knockout is good for me.
“The first round, I just wanted to see what he had. It depended on how he came out, and after a little while, yeah, I thought I could get him out.
“Getting the win makes me smile, but to be able to fight the winner of Casimero and Donaire, that brings me another smile.”
Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum said, “Naoya Inoue is a unique force of nature inside that ring. Another incredible performance from ‘The Monster.’ We are seeing a great fighter at work here, and he is only going to get better.”
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WBO women’s super featherweight champion Mikaela Mayer (15-0, 5 KOs) outpointed Erica Farias (26-5, 10 KOs) over ten rounds. Scores were 97-93, 98-92, 98-92.
Former WBO 122lb champion Isaac Dogboe (22-2, 15 KOs) scored a ten round majority decision over Adam “Blue Nose” Lopez (15-3, 6 KOs) in a featherweight bout. Lopez rallied late, but it was Dogboe winning 95-95, 97-93, 96-94.
2016 Olympian KO artist Lindolfo Delgado (12-0, 11 KOs) went the distance for the first time, winning an eight round unanimous decision over Salvador Briceno (17-7, 11 KOs) in a junior welterweight bout. Scores were 80-72, 79-73, 79-73.
Lightweight Eric Puente (6-0, 0 KOs) recovered from a first round knockdown to take a six round unanimous decision against Jose Antonio Meza (7-6, 2 KOs). Scores were 57-56, 58-55, 58-55.
In a battle of unbeaten junior welterweights, Omar Rosario (4-0, 2 KOs) stopped JJ Mariano (3-1, 2 KOs) in round four. Mariano down several times. Time was :47.
Feel bad for Lopez because this was his shot and beating a name and known contender. If you can’t beat Dogboe your probably not going to be a champion.
Dogboe is a former world champ with 2 losses in 8 years to the same thoroughbred fighter and you feel bad the unproven and virtually anonymous Lopez cant beat him and thus has no future? Pete, please name all these fighters that are just walking all over Dogboe. The internet is a beautiful thing….
Dudes are acting like dogboe is a gatekeeper because he lost to navaratte twice. dogboe is a legit championship caliber fighter. lopez tough as nailes though.
Unfortunately the fight proved at this weight Dogboe doesn’t have a lot of crack in his punches and being on the short side he needs to work in close and he really isn’t defensively sound enough to not eat a bunch of shots. Every bout is going to be a fire fight. And if a guy with 3 losses and 6 KOs took him to the limit like this and buzzed him a couple of times yeah Dogboe is headed towards opponent status. Especially when one of the guys at the top of 126 is the guy that dummied him twice already
Dogboe needs the short guy, Tyson-style peek-a-boo. With the twitchy, constant lateral head movement, slipping punches and ripping hooks to the body.
That was gruesome! He chopped Dasmarinas right in half.
Inoue looked impressive but still needs to fight better competition maybe Donaire again or even Rungvisai the little guys just have enough elite competition
Stop calling yourself a historian when it’s proven you’re nothing but a casual.
He’ll fight Casimero or Donaire. That good enough?
Also, he tends to make good competition look bad.
Inoue owned the night as the p4p #1 should.
He didn’t languish like most fighters do against deserving opposition should and demolished a very capable opponent. It’s just that Inoue is the ONLY special fighter in boxing right now.
he fought a scared bum. he’s supposed to dispatch a guy like that. proves nothing. let’s see donaire II
Lol. He did dispatch the guy. Maybe you should watch the fight again.
I don’t know if he’s the “only” special fighter, but he’s one of a kind. I’ve never bought into pound for pound rankings because taking size out of the equation is silly (why is there no speed for speed ranking? Or power to power? Those are equally as ludicrous as the concept of “pound for pound”). However, knowing those kind of subjective ratings exist, there’s no way on Earth this guy should be anywhere but #1. He does everything well. Hell, he does everything great. The guy is just a smashing machine.
And they say Thunder doesn’t strike twice on the same spot. Inoue made it happen 3 times. The Monster look amazing!
Inoue is no joke. Let’s get another look at Inoue vs. Donaire.
See this is what a champ does in Inoue, he dont fk around he gets the job done KTFO this cat.
Unlike Charlo etc.
Inoue is my P4P number 1 at the moment and my favorite fighter too. Amazing skills, speed, power and dedication.
Inoue is my favorite fighter at this point. He’s always balanced and ready to punch. His precise punches have incredible velocity and he has the footwork to get those punches into the areas where they can do the most damage. He showed that he can overcome adversity in the Donaire fight and I look forward to a clash against the Donaire-Casimero winner in August.
Bantamweight is probably the highest he should go. His small frame is best suited for 115 lbs but bantamweight is where the big fights are. His speed and punching power have carried up to the higher weight class.
I also love watching David Benavidez and Regis Prograis, but Inoue tops them on my list with his mobility and incredible punching power.
The precision of Inoue’s punch placement is crazy, and unlike anyone else right now — the way he splits jabs with a vertical fist; sticks that liver shot In a small spot for maximum pain, like he’s shanking you, etc.
CASIMERO vs DONAIRE
DONAIRE WILL FOR EVER BE RETIRED ON AUGUST 15 2021
AND INOUE WILL FOREVER BE RETIRED 2022
If Casimero brings a lot of pressure and wild punches, he’s going to eat a counter and take a nap. 6th round.
I was at this one. Exciting to watch Inoue work and he did as expected. I took the prop bet for him to win in under 4.5 rounds, so that worked out. He figured out in about 40 seconds what he could do to Dasmarinas then he directed it till the end. Dogboe felt like he was going to beat down Lopez, but Lopez could take a shot well and looked bigger in there. I think his size and chin held up well so dogboe had to settle for a war/ Mikaela did well and I enjoyed seeing her as well. The 4 ladies next to me backed up our previous discussing on ladies boxing last week. The wife of the guy to our right fell asleep during the fight. The female with me in discussion after the fight agreed she had talent but said that in contrast from the men’s fights she felt it was a letdown (the lack of power) and shorter rounds. So in summary she would not pay to watch a all women’s card, which was one of my assumptions in the article about a women’s tournament… tough to monetize it. The 2 ladies to my left holding hands and being affectionate to one another I assume came solely to watch Mikaela, they only arrived for her fight, and missed the entire undercard and main event. So based on that sample supporting most of our collective hypothesis, females generally won’t pay to support a talented all female boxing card. Most of the minority of boxing fans that are female will come to join their family/friends significant other only. Not as boxing afficionados when they can watch more action in men’s boxing. It just comes back to a
“preference thing” again. Mikaela is a good face to female boxing but for most that match was a filler, time for many of the crowd to take a bathroom break, or visit the Virgin bars. Despite this sidebar on that topic that came up last week (and in the press conference where Bob Arum talked all about the state commissions being the ones who force 2 min rounds, 10 round fights) the entire event was great, and The Virgin theatre is a classy venue. Holds around 4500-4800 capacity. The tickets for next weeks Loma-Nakatani were selling well, so TOP RANK really has something good going right now.
Nice report Miguel. You should have sold this to Fightnews