As a YUUUUUGE Inoue glazer, let me just state how extraordinarily lucky OP is that there are no dumb questions lol.
Please name some fighters who possess attributes that are far superior to Inoue.
LOL!!!
Inoue is on the decline as proven in his previous fight against kim.... although he won that fight, his punches wasnt the same snapping type punches. he's loading up and throwing kinda wide now, similar to pacman and canelo when they were on the decline. the way they throw their punch is different than how it was when they were in their prime... mark my word, Inoue will lose this year! come back and quote this post when it happens. sometimes, being too active is not a good thing. it takes wear and tear off your body and mental state.
Who you got him losing to?
Inoue is on the decline as proven in his previous fight against kim.... although he won that fight, his punches wasnt the same snapping type punches. he's loading up and throwing kinda wide now, similar to pacman and canelo when they were on the decline. the way they throw their punch is different than how it was when they were in their prime... mark my word, Inoue will lose this year! come back and quote this post when it happens. sometimes, being too active is not a good thing. it takes wear and tear off your body and mental state.
He's lost maybe 2-3 rounds at 122 while knocking out Fulton, Tapales, Nery, Doheny, and Kim, and taking no damage. He's having to load up because these dudes are rehydrating a ton.
Chin is up for debate... Donaire had him seeing stars & broke his orbital bone with a single left hook and Nery was able to drop him with a single shot. Elite skilled fighters know how to ride shots to take the sting off or in the correct position to minimise any potential damage.
Meh, it happens.
Nonito caught him early in the second round and broke his orbital bone. Inoue himself said the punch didn't hurt — it just caused damage because boxing. That set up later punches that landed due to compromised vision. The nuclear right hand in the 9th round should have ended Inoue as it would have ended anyone. Inoue buckled and recovered seconds later.
For the Nery fight, Inoue said he wanted to make a statement and even said during the lead up that it could be an early night. Plus he was partially tripped. But he got up at 7, eyes clear, clinched, circled, and then countered Nery 3X whilst against the ropes as Nery tried to finish him.
Inoue's chin is elite.
i didnt mention anything close to this... and he has 3 fights this year, it's not like they are all against TOP contenders.. so this goes back to my point... he's fighting 3 time this year but it's not against top level fighters. so he's putting wear and tear on his body for fights that arent consider big fights...
all im saying is, maybe fight 2 x a year... fight once at the beginning and another one towards the end... this way he has time to fully recover... fight twice for a few years and then if he wants to do 3 x a year, he can go back to it but he needs some rest before going back to fighting 3 x a year.
Picasso, Nakatani or MJ, and Nick Ball — this is an insane run, guy.
It does happen and is to be expected BUT there are a select few who have been seriously cracked and never gone down. Guys like Usyk, Bivol, Breidis, Vitalli Klitschko, GGG, Hagler, Marciano as well as having exceptional skills also have/had elite chins. Time will tell with Inoue but I'm sceptical as we've already seen him down at 122lbs so I'd imagine the chances of him going down at featherweight should increase just like when Loma went up to lightweight fighting bigger guys.
PS I deliberately omitted Canelo from that list of fighters never to be knocked down because the ropes kept him up after getting clipped by Cotto's brother - had the ropes not been there he would've been on the canvas but obviously the ref turned a blind eye!
He's in his fifth weight class.