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That fight was an absolute pleasure to watch. Got that shock from watching Inoue get dropped from a lovely counter from Nery in the very first round. He patiently waited out the count, then went on the back foot, evaded nearly every shot Nery threw at him with some nice head movement, then had recovered enough by the end of the round to go back on the offense and land some good strikes.
Then he answered the questions from the first round by making the adjustments and dropping Nery hard with a gorgeous left hook retreating to get Nery reaching, then filling the space left when Nery made a mistake with that hard left, having retreated in perfect balance. When a fight starts with two opposing 10-8 rounds, you know it's going to be good.
After that, he made the adjustments to get the timing down, and gradually land power shots with impunity, especially lead crosses. He was landing near on 50%+ of his power punches, excepting Rd 5, in which he also dropped Nery again. He even showboated, walking to the middle of the ring and waving Nery in, then cracking against Nery's guard with an unexpected 2-7 combo as the Mexican tried to come meet him in the center of the ring.
By Rd 6, he was landing basically at will. When he landed a clean jab, he saw Nery was reacting big on his attempts to defend, so he faked the jab, came around the guard with a partially blocked 3 which he used to strip the guard and land a clean right uppercut, then doubled it up on the right with a devastating short right over the top as Nery was reeling back from the uppercut that landed flush on Nery's jaw, sending the Mexican spinning, eyes rolled back in his head, to land unconscious on the bottom rope.
With that emphatic knockout, he solidified his position in history as, IMO, the greatest Japanese boxer to ever lace up the gloves.
Then he answered the questions from the first round by making the adjustments and dropping Nery hard with a gorgeous left hook retreating to get Nery reaching, then filling the space left when Nery made a mistake with that hard left, having retreated in perfect balance. When a fight starts with two opposing 10-8 rounds, you know it's going to be good.
After that, he made the adjustments to get the timing down, and gradually land power shots with impunity, especially lead crosses. He was landing near on 50%+ of his power punches, excepting Rd 5, in which he also dropped Nery again. He even showboated, walking to the middle of the ring and waving Nery in, then cracking against Nery's guard with an unexpected 2-7 combo as the Mexican tried to come meet him in the center of the ring.
By Rd 6, he was landing basically at will. When he landed a clean jab, he saw Nery was reacting big on his attempts to defend, so he faked the jab, came around the guard with a partially blocked 3 which he used to strip the guard and land a clean right uppercut, then doubled it up on the right with a devastating short right over the top as Nery was reeling back from the uppercut that landed flush on Nery's jaw, sending the Mexican spinning, eyes rolled back in his head, to land unconscious on the bottom rope.
With that emphatic knockout, he solidified his position in history as, IMO, the greatest Japanese boxer to ever lace up the gloves.
BoxWhere
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