Comments Thread For: Inoue-Tapales Undisputed Championship Targeted For December 26 In Tokyo

[crimsonfalcon07]

Inoue has spent his entire career fighting the best available opponents. No other active boxer has fought as high a percentage of the best available competition. I think boxing historians would be hard pressed to find ANYONE who has consistently fought the best as frequently as Inoue. But the "I don't watch the little guys" crowd wants to devalue him and use the notion that he hasn't fought anybody to do so. It's truly asinine.

[_Rexy_]

Well to be more precise, Chocolatito fought Cuadras for his first fight at 115 to get a belt instead of Inoue who also had a belt, and won. But that would've been still fine, if they were able to score a unification match later on. It is his loss to Rungvisai on his second match at 115 which effed up everything because due to the rematch and everything else really put a dent on the Inoue-Chocolatito plans

Well Cuadras was the easier match than Inoue, there's no doubting that. But Inoue was ringside for that bout, and sent an offer to Chocolatito after the fight.

That's not a duck

[Elheath]

Not only did Chocolatito turn down the Inoue fight, “because of the money”, after Cuadras, he went on to fight Rungvisai after that. Which makes no sense.

Another thing, Choco was asked later if he would be willing to fight Inoue at 118. he said, “No, I’m not interested. It’s not in my plans.” He went on to fight Estrada a third time.

After he defeated Cuadras to get the belt, Cuadras demanded a rematch. Chocolatito said he didn't have a rematch clause so he had no obligation to accept a rematch, and decided to fight Rungvisai instead probably because he considered him an easier opponent than Cuadras rematch or an Inoue unification, except losing to Rungvisai was the unexpected result which led to him getting locked into a rematch, then after losing the rematch as well Chocolatito went on a period of inactivity likely due to the shock of the consecutive loss. Cuadras and Estrada got occupied with eachother then the mandadory against Rungvisai. At that point Inoue said "well I'm just going up to third division because no notable names or champs will fight me"

As for the money, the irony is that after Inoue went up to 118 and on, his purse just jumped exponentially to the point where it made Chocolatito's purse a chump change. Due to yen~dollar conversion there may be some differences but according to one source:
vs Nieves (where he was undercard to Chocolatito, first match in US) was about $190k which was still the second highest of that event after Chocolatito who made 600k.
vs Boyeaux (final match at 115) was about $275k
vs McDonnel (first match at 118) was about $375k
vs Payano (R1 of WBSS) was $600k
vs Rodriguez (SF of WBSS) was $800k
vs Donaire I (F of WBSS) was $1mil
vs Moloney (somewhat of a makeup after the Casimero unification match was cancelled due to COVID) was also $1mil
vs Dasmarinas (mandatory defense) was also $1mil
vs Dipaen (voluntary defense due to COVID making it hard to bring foreign fighters to Japan) was a guaranteed $500k plus other bonus which made it "over $1mil total" per Japanese news source
vs Donaire II was "over $2mil total"
vs Butler was "over $3mil including bonuses, the record for the lower weight divisions" per Japanese news source
vs Fulton was "$5mil for Inoue, $4mil for Fulton including the late fee Inoue side paid for injury delay". Note Fulton's highest purse prior to this was against Figueroa for $1mil

[Elheath]

Well Cuadras was the easier match than Inoue, there's no doubting that. But Inoue was ringside for that bout, and sent an offer to Chocolatito after the fight.

That's not a duck

Well you are talking to someone who fully believes Inoue would've definitely gone undisputed in the three years he was in 115 if he had his current purse powers to get others from dodging him, so minor detail in the end :P

I still blame Chocolatito losing to Rungvisai on his match right after Cuadras as what started the domino of Inoue missing out on the 115 party. In a generation where it seems that fans are lucky to see top boxers fight twice a year, he just had to lose to a relative meh opponent, lose his belts, and go for a rematch, and lose AGAIN. Then Estrada being "careful" with his 115 opponent choices and the other guys not even being in the picture.

The irony is that years later, Naoya will be fighting Marlon Tapales (the guy that Takuma was scheduled to fight but missed due to injury) in December and Takuma will be fighting Jerwin Ancajas (the guy Naoya tried to attempt to get an unification fight with but fell through in the end) next month.

[_Rexy_]

Well you are talking to someone who fully believes Inoue would've definitely gone undisputed in the three years he was in 115 if he had his current purse powers to get others from dodging him, so minor detail in the end :P

I still blame Chocolatito losing to Rungvisai on his match right after Cuadras as what started the domino of Inoue missing out on the 115 party. In a generation where it seems that fans are lucky to see top boxers fight twice a year, he just had to lose to a relative meh opponent, lose his belts, and go for a rematch, and lose AGAIN. Then Estrada being "careful" with his 115 opponent choices and the other guys not even being in the picture.

The irony is that years later, Naoya will be fighting Marlon Tapales (the guy that Takuma was scheduled to fight but missed due to injury) in December and Takuma will be fighting Jerwin Ancajas (the guy Naoya tried to attempt to get an unification fight with but fell through in the end) next month.

Has Ioka/Estrada been confirmed yet??

[Elheath]

Has Ioka/Estrada been confirmed yet??

Unfortunately still not one update. I guess the good(?) news is that it also hasn't been denied yet, as no other potential opponents has been rumored or mentioned yet. Given the tradition, I just don't think Ioka is going to skip out on New Year's Eve now so something's hopefully gonna come out but if not the Eve, hopefully it happens early 2024.

If anything I want to know who Nakatani will be fighting next, because if he can't join the Ioka-Estrada party (which it seems like he's the odd man out for now) and Martinez has no interest in unifying with him, then he might as well just go up to 118 and attempt to follow Naoya's path.

[JOITATS]

Chocolatito as many other fighters have always avoided the Monster like the plague. I feel like I’ve posted the same facts 100x, but there are still knuckleheads who think it was the other way.

For those who just started following Inoue.
Inoue was calling out Choco (while he Ring’s P4P #1). He was undefeated, beat Estrada, Cuadras, everyone. That’s who Inoue wanted. Not the guys who lost to Choco.

[ShoulderRoll]

Yes, we get it. It's not a duck they all went for better fights. But then you spin around and **** on Inoue for not fighting them, which isn't fair.

Not to mention that he didn't get a higher payday, he went and fought SSR and lost.

For whatever reason, the fact remains that Inoue never fought Chocolatito, Estrada, Sor Rungvisai, or Cuadras.

Despite passing through the same weight class.

[Elheath]

For whatever reason, the fact remains that Inoue never fought Chocolatito, Estrada, Sor Rungvisai, or Cuadras.

Despite passing through the same weight class.

And that "whatever reason" is that Inoue really wanted to fight the bigger names, but none of them wanted to fight Inoue because he was a high risk opponent, simple as that. If Chocolatito or Estrada had Inoue's mindset, they would've happily taken up him for the first match when they came up to 115.

The path Chocolatito took at 115 would be the equivalent of Inoue going up to 122 then receiving an offer from Fulton to fight but refuses and instead Inoue fights MJ first. He defeats MJ while having Fulton in the ringside challenge the winner after the match, but then Inoue refuse a rematch from MJ and also not take on Fulton's offer for an undisputed fight and instead decides to fight Tapales for his first defense. Then somehow Inoue loses to Tapales so he requests a rematch with Tapales (and) and then loses AGAIN and decides to go into inactivity for a while he contemplates his future and at the same time, MJ gets locked into a fight with Tapales next. At that point Fulton said eff it, I ain't waiting anymore for Inoue and just goes up to 126 and Fulton ends up going undisputed there, and goes up to 130 and is about to go undisputed there as well but people saying "Well for some reason Fulton never fought Inoue despite passing through the same weight class"

[ShoulderRoll]

And that "whatever reason" is that Inoue really wanted to fight the bigger names, but none of them wanted to fight Inoue because he was a high risk opponent, simple as that. If Chocolatito or Estrada had Inoue's mindset, they would've happily taken up him for the first match when they came up to 115.

The path Chocolatito took at 115 would be the equivalent of Inoue going up to 122 then receiving an offer from Fulton to fight but refuses and instead Inoue fights MJ first. He defeats MJ while having Fulton in the ringside challenge the winner after the match, but then Inoue refuse a rematch from MJ and also not take on Fulton's offer for an undisputed fight and instead decides to fight Tapales for his first defense. Then somehow Inoue loses to Tapales so he requests a rematch with Tapales (and) and then loses AGAIN and decides to go into inactivity for a while he contemplates his future and at the same time, MJ gets locked into a fight with Tapales next. At that point Fulton said eff it, I ain't waiting anymore for Inoue and just goes up to 126 and Fulton ends up going undisputed there, and goes up to 130 and is about to go undisputed there as well but people saying "Well for some reason Fulton never fought Inoue despite passing through the same weight class"

He managed not to fight ANY of them. That’s not a good look no matter how you slice it.

He did destroy Fulton though which was a great win.