Comments Thread For: As Naoya Inoue pushes himself to the brink, fans continue to push harder

[BoxingUpdates]

Naoya Inoue is 29-0 with 26 knockouts. A flyweight at the onset of his career, he is now a junior featherweight and will likely climb higher...
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[crimsonfalcon07]

Amen. Look at how people criticize Golovkin for staying at middleweight taking on all comers. The same would have happened to Hagler. Boxing fans don't understand the concept of weight classes. Combat sports fans seem to be the worst about actually understanding the rules of the sport they're supposedly fans of. Baseball, football, soccer fans etc know the rules of their sports. But boxing fans regularly spout the same incorrect drivel about how a blow wasn't low because it was on the beltline, even though the beltline has nothing to do with the definition of a low blow, or the old misunderstood saw about how you have to take the belts from a champ by beating him clearly (as if Sugar Ray didn't win over the aforementioned Hagler on the strength of a controversial split decision), when that saying means nothing more than the champ retains in the event of a tie. Even the great Roy Jones Jr gets that one wrong. I'm not sure what it is about our sport that brings out all the people who can't be bothered to learn the rules, but nonetheless want to loudly hold court on their incorrect opinions, but I do hope that throwback fighters like Inoue, who is reputed to have signed a contract to never take an easy fight, don't suffer from the ******ity of the fans.

[messi807]

Amen. Look at how people criticize Golovkin for staying at middleweight taking on all comers. The same would have happened to Hagler. Boxing fans don't understand the concept of weight classes. Combat sports fans seem to be the worst about actually understanding the rules of the sport they're supposedly fans of. Baseball, football, soccer fans etc know the rules of their sports. But boxing fans regularly spout the same incorrect drivel about how a blow wasn't low because it was on the beltline, even though the beltline has nothing to do with the definition of a low blow, or the old misunderstood saw about how you have to take the belts from a champ by beating him clearly (as if Sugar Ray didn't win over the aforementioned Hagler on the strength of a controversial split decision), when that saying means nothing more than the champ retains in the event of a tie. Even the great Roy Jones Jr gets that one wrong. I'm not sure what it is about our sport that brings out all the people who can't be bothered to learn the rules, but nonetheless want to loudly hold court on their incorrect opinions, but I do hope that throwback fighters like Inoue, who is reputed to have signed a contract to never take an easy fight, don't suffer from the ******ity of the fans.

Super-Middleweight division wasn’t really around like that or popular until Hagler was pretty much old or retired.

Difference was Hagler fought ATG’s and hall of famers. Golovkin said he’d fight 168 pounders and never did once. In todays game it’s much easier to make a move up in weight where there’s 4 weight classes. Golovkin’s team ducked and dodged fights with high risk fighters but kept complaining nobody would fight him.

With Inoue it’s a bit different. I think people just want to see him against great fighters. If you’re wiping out everyone in your weight class.. naturally fans are going to want you to move up, until you find challenges. And I’m not talking about Tank Davis.

[losetodo]

Boxing is dead, seems like theres nothing else to write about

[ShoulderRoll]

TJ Doheny, Sam Goodman, Ye Joon Kim.

Yeah, he’s really been pushing himself to the brink lately.

[SteveM]

Amen. Look at how people criticize Golovkin for staying at middleweight taking on all comers. The same would have happened to Hagler. Boxing fans don't understand the concept of weight classes. Combat sports fans seem to be the worst about actually understanding the rules of the sport they're supposedly fans of. Baseball, football, soccer fans etc know the rules of their sports. But boxing fans regularly spout the same incorrect drivel about how a blow wasn't low because it was on the beltline, even though the beltline has nothing to do with the definition of a low blow, or the old misunderstood saw about how you have to take the belts from a champ by beating him clearly (as if Sugar Ray didn't win over the aforementioned Hagler on the strength of a controversial split decision), when that saying means nothing more than the champ retains in the event of a tie. Even the great Roy Jones Jr gets that one wrong. I'm not sure what it is about our sport that brings out all the people who can't be bothered to learn the rules, but nonetheless want to loudly hold court on their incorrect opinions, but I do hope that throwback fighters like Inoue, who is reputed to have signed a contract to never take an easy fight, don't suffer from the ******ity of the fans.

was thinking the same about Hagler - in todays world he'd be criticised for fighting fighters moving up. It was Abel Sanchez who (******ly) said Golovkin would fight anyone from 154-168 - but luckily for him Ward was in a contractual dispute with his promoter when that was said and alluded that he'd need a warm up fight anyway after being inactive so long. Loeffler and likely Arum as well steered Golovkin towards Canelo to make life changing money. I think Ward was too physically strong, to big and too savvy for Golovkin at that time.

[JeBron Lamez]

One reason for the insatiable greed of "fans" (short for 'fanatic', lest we forget) when it comes to wanting fighters to move up is that a lot of people don't watch the early fights of very many fighters in real time. The cliche of the lighter weights being neglected is as true in this regard as any other.

Anyone who followed Terence Crawford's career in real time & lived through the anticipation for each bout, knows that the level of sheer disrespect his achievements receive from supposed boxing enthusiasts is bewildering. Inoue is another example of this.

Just because the media eventually start taking for granted that a guy's always gonna win, don't forget how genuine fear factors are earned in the first place.

[crimsonfalcon07]

With Inoue it’s a bit different. I think people just want to see him against great fighters. If you’re wiping out everyone in your weight class.. naturally fans are going to want you to move up, until you find challenges. And I’m not talking about Tank Davis.

One of the criteria that made several ATG's who they were was sustained dominance. There's something to be said for completely cleaning out divisions of all credible threats. How many fighters in history have beaten all the other champions and then completely cleaned out the division of possible challengers, and done that in two consecutive divisions, working from the top down? Take a look around and see how many names you can come up with. Usyk and Crawford both took fights to settle into their divisions. They didn't go straight for the king. Inoue has taken on the best available guy in the division in his debut 3 times.

Let's add that Inoue is doing this to fighters with all different styles, and that half of his career has been against fighters good enough to win world titles, many in multiple divisions, and nearly 85% has been against fighters good enough to earn a mandatory shot.

And you think he's not challenging himself? Do you have any idea what kind of challenge it takes to get in the ring at all, let alone at the world title level? Then to risk it all in a new division, before you know what kind of performance you'll be able to have, against the best guy? And then the next best guy, and the next best guy?

IMO, Usyk and Beterbiev are the only other fighters in the 4 belt era who can be reasonably said to have completely cleaned out his division, and that's leaving aside Benavidez and Morrell who got ducked for years by Canelo, and in Usyk's case at heavyweight, that's basically just the 3 guys. He hasn't fought, Zhang, Bakole, Joyce, Kabayel, Ruiz, indeed most of the guya who have been top 10 during his reign. And both those guys took tuneups to accomplish what they have. No other active boxer has taken the risks that Inoue has and still delivered. The notion that he hasn't challenged himself is frankly, absurd, and can only be adopted absent context.

[Knuckle sandwich]

Inoue and his team have game plans they implementing, he wants to keep the Japanese fans happy, whilst selling his brand, just like him as a fighter, he is in control, i admire this.

[Bob]

Inoue is a special talent & my p4p.
But there are far to many weight classes lower down separated by lees than a 2L bottle of water, It's ridiculous.