Comments Thread For: Zolani Tete Accuses Naoya Inoue of Ducking Him

[1hourRun]

This still glosses over that Inoue is fighting only 1 month after Tete, where Inoue's only other option is to not fight and wait longer for Tete. Its not like Tete was out there looking for an opponent and Inoue picked someone else - Tete was already fighting someone else.

Also, no idea what the plan is, but:

1) Loeffler has stated he wants Inoue back on his superfly 3 card even if its at 118
2) superfly 3 targeted for the fall
3) Inoue wants back onto the US stage

Add it all up, and timing would be perfect for Inoue v Tete unification as part of Superfly 3.

That would benefit Tete too as its the biggest stage for the 112-118 weight class there is.

Fingers crossed.

“The WBO has Tete” was the first potential opponent Inoue mentioned. Zolani Tete is the WBO bantamweight champion and is riding a ten fight win streak over the last five years.

https://www.boxingscene.com/naoya-in...i-tete--123869

But we want Jamie McDonnell now, tired going to bed.

[angkag]

He robbed Kameda! he robbed Solis! he should be fighting at featherweight! McDonnell was forced to rematch both men back to back! not my words! the WBA forced him to rematch Loborio Solis last time around ; plenty of articles online documenting this, you guys act like it never happened!

SKY had McDonnell clearly losing the first fight vs. Liborio Solis, it was considered top robbery of 2017! He sucks! he been missing weight on the scale at bantamweight since 2015!!! -- a weight bully, he was suppose to leave the division and fight at 122 after robbing Solis in Monaco, how do you guys miss all the news?!

All the news ? You mean like McDonnell making weight ok vs Solis last time and stating it would be his last bantamweight fight regardless of result as he would be moving up in weight and vacating at 118 ?

Feels like a bit of a set-up in a way. McDonnell gets to maybe weigh in heavy vs Inoue, so vacating in that way, then blame any loss on the weight, meantime getting the payday for the Japan trip.

But if McDonnell does make weight again, he's still got the excuse of the weight before going back to Plan A of going up to 122, so can see how McDonnell gets out of this ok regardless of result.

Risk is for Inoue, especially if McDonnell 'does a Salido' on him.

[SAINTSTEVE]

Tete got injured in January pushing the fight back to April. I didn't hear about Inoue McDonnell until February, will be on May 25. Sometimes you gotta be a little patient.

[Boxing Logic]

I cant blame Zolani Tete for feeling this way, we seen this pattern before with Inoue; all those years at 'Superfly' and not one elite prime opponent, no : Rungvisai, Gonzalez, Estrada, Cuadras, Yafai.

The Inoue fight was offered to Yafai. When Rungvisai became champion, he fought Chocolatito and Estrada back to back, not Inoue. When Gonzalez was champ, HBO ******ly wanted to build up the fight with Inoue first, but got Chocolatito beat instead. And Inoue's team has also said the fight was offered to other superfly champs but they wouldn't fight him, so Cuadras may be among those. They were too nice to out who else turned the fight down so now their own fighter is getting trashed by ignorant fanboys (ahem). I guess that's partly their fault as a result but at the very least you should take responsibility yourself to not speak mistruths. They offered the fight to Yafai, that much is known fact. Rungvisai was busy with the Chocolatito rematch and then his mandatory with Estrada, both of which HBO wanted. Cuadras probably didn't want to fight Inoue coming off a loss and two beatings.

Just be patient. Inoue has less than 20 fights. I have a strong feeling we're going to see him fight top opponents UNDER THE AGE OF 35 very soon. Your boy Wilder is 9 years older than Inoue and has 40 fights and still hasn't done that. What's up with that?

[Boxing Logic]

The people who follow these divisions, who is actually the best guy at 118 besides Inoue? And who is better, Tete or Nery?

Inoue vs Santa Cruz at a 123 catch weight would be dope. Maybe 124 if Inoue bulks up.

Inoue vs Rigo at 118 or 120 catchweight anyone? Rigo shouldnt need any catchweight if "he's really a 118 pounder" like all his fans claimed, though. But those claims usually turn out to be bull****. In any case, Inoue vs Rigo would be awesome.

[Boxing Logic]

All right, but please tell me: from when, exactly, did Tete become such a danger to be avoided by someone like Inoue? Name one fighter on his resume who is worthy of being remembered. Perhaps Moruti Mthalane (who, in fact, TKOd Tete).

I've never seen Tete fight, but all I know is that when the boxingscene article was published about a month ago that Inoue and Tete might fight, there were a few people saying it's a solid fight, but a lot of other commenters saying it wasn't a great fight and that Inoue was ducking other people and that Tete had 3 losses and so on. So it seems like Inoue just has a lot of haters on these boards just like it seems every other non-black-American pound-for-pound level talent does.

For certain posters, any top boxer who takes attention away from All Time Greats like Gervonta Davis, Adrien Broner, Deontay Wilder, Adonis Stevenson (I know he's Canadian but still), and Jermall Charlo is automatically an enemy who they must find ways to belittle and undermine to try to pull them down below those guys, which given the talent gulf that is often involved in these comparisons, requires quite a lot of belittling and undermining to accomplish. That must be why they're starting early with Inoue.

Then again, maybe I am misjudging this. Dmitry Bivol fought more of a defensive, low mistake style vs Barrera and I've mostly seen him get nothing but credit from all corners of the boxing community, although there have been a fair share of "Russian cheater" comments and "Ward would destroy this HBO hypejob" type of ones. But, not as many as normal. So whether that's because he left so little room for criticism with his performance, or whether it's because he did it against an Andre Ward opponent they hyped before realizing this would happen so they really couldn't do anything but give Bivol credit, or whether it's because they actually do care about the style I won't say instead of race, but maybe in addition to race, who can really say.

Well, actually, I can, seeing as Deontay Wilder fights the very poor man's version of the Kovalev or GGG or Pacquiao style in terms of offense, or even the Klitschko style in terms of careful tall fighters, all of which they used to criticize, but seeing as now they're praising Wilder and saying how awesome the offensive style is... some in their videos even saying they appreciate him because he's a "strong black man"... well, you can see that race is still the #1 issue for many of these boxing fans, so I do have to conclude that the credit Bivol has gotten from more of them than gave credit to GGG or Kovalev early probably has more to do with them having little other choice but to give him credit given how he outperformed Andre Ward against a common opponent who they'd previously hyped, unless they wanted to look like hypocrites, rather than because Bivol fights with more of a boxer-puncher style rather than the puncher-boxer style of those guys.

But, that doesn't mean I can't still be wrong that this is the place the Inoue criticism is coming from. It's just when the first critic in the comment section has a sig with Deontay Wilder using fouls to knock out an out of shape 38 - 48 year old, it fits the pattern I've seen before many times. That doesn't mean it's the case this time, just that it has the look of it at first glance.

[jackblack008]

Tete should be thankful. Inoue would ice his ass

[chrisJS]

The people who follow these divisions, who is actually the best guy at 118 besides Inoue? And who is better, Tete or Nery?

Inoue vs Santa Cruz at a 123 catch weight would be dope. Maybe 124 if Inoue bulks up.

Inoue vs Rigo at 118 or 120 catchweight anyone? Rigo shouldnt need any catchweight if "he's really a 118 pounder" like all his fans claimed, though. But those claims usually turn out to be bull****. In any case, Inoue vs Rigo would be awesome.

Nery is out of the division. Yamanaka was the lineal and most credentialed fighter but was getting old and was cheated twice by Nery so I'd say Tete has a claim but Burnett is a undefeated unified champion coming off two good wins.

My guess is that Inoue after his next fight will appear as the clear #1 as he's the most talented and accomplished fighter in the division.

[chrisJS]

I've never seen Tete fight, but all I know is that when the boxingscene article was published about a month ago that Inoue and Tete might fight, there were a few people saying it's a solid fight, but a lot of other commenters saying it wasn't a great fight and that Inoue was ducking other people and that Tete had 3 losses and so on. So it seems like Inoue just has a lot of haters on these boards just like it seems every other non-black-American pound-for-pound level talent does.

For certain posters, any top boxer who takes attention away from All Time Greats like Gervonta Davis, Adrien Broner, Deontay Wilder, Adonis Stevenson (I know he's Canadian but still), and Jermall Charlo is automatically an enemy who they must find ways to belittle and undermine to try to pull them down below those guys, which given the talent gulf that is often involved in these comparisons, requires quite a lot of belittling and undermining to accomplish. That must be why they're starting early with Inoue.

Then again, maybe I am misjudging this. Dmitry Bivol fought more of a defensive, low mistake style vs Barrera and I've mostly seen him get nothing but credit from all corners of the boxing community, although there have been a fair share of "Russian cheater" comments and "Ward would destroy this HBO hypejob" type of ones. But, not as many as normal. So whether that's because he left so little room for criticism with his performance, or whether it's because he did it against an Andre Ward opponent they hyped before realizing this would happen so they really couldn't do anything but give Bivol credit, or whether it's because they actually do care about the style I won't say instead of race, but maybe in addition to race, who can really say.

Well, actually, I can, seeing as Deontay Wilder fights the very poor man's version of the Kovalev or GGG or Pacquiao style in terms of offense, or even the Klitschko style in terms of careful tall fighters, all of which they used to criticize, but seeing as now they're praising Wilder and saying how awesome the offensive style is... some in their videos even saying they appreciate him because he's a "strong black man"... well, you can see that race is still the #1 issue for many of these boxing fans, so I do have to conclude that the credit Bivol has gotten from more of them than gave credit to GGG or Kovalev early probably has more to do with them having little other choice but to give him credit given how he outperformed Andre Ward against a common opponent who they'd previously hyped, unless they wanted to look like hypocrites, rather than because Bivol fights with more of a boxer-puncher style rather than the puncher-boxer style of those guys.

But, that doesn't mean I can't still be wrong that this is the place the Inoue criticism is coming from. It's just when the first critic in the comment section has a sig with Deontay Wilder using fouls to knock out an out of shape 38 - 48 year old, it fits the pattern I've seen before many times. That doesn't mean it's the case this time, just that it has the look of it at first glance.

A lot of truths here. I think it's a case of it was always more on foreign fighters especially from places like Europe and Asia to do extra to prove themselves and gain acceptance and their American counterparts really have lowered standards. It's intensified in recent years because instead of 5-6 or more US fighters on the pound for pound lists its more like 2 or 3 if we are lucky so the insecurities have grown. The standards for foreigners has increased and its lowered for American fighters.

Remember when Lennox Lewis was active? He got next to no respect and only after he retired were people willing to say he's a great fighter. Joe Calzaghe and undefeated records meant nothing but now if you have a loss you are terrible but an unbeaten record no matter if it's against trash is a huge deal.

[sammybee]

I thought Inoue will unify rather than move up.
I hope he is not docking any super flyer.