Monstrous masterclass as Inoue blasts away Fulton
Plus, misery for Maxi, Sky Sports boxing and Lee McGregor
I’ve moved things forward a little this week to account for the biggest week in boxing for many years. Keep an eye out over the next few days for a Spence vs. Crawford preview article.
In the end it was nothing short of a masterclass. A prolonged one-sided beatdown that started on a jab, mixed with lightning speed and catchy combinations, ending on a blitz of calculated violence in round eight.
Naysayers and contrarians criticising Naoya Inoue’s record or claiming mid-fight that Stephen Fulton was catching shots and downloading the data, be gone. The Philly data was coming down on a 56k modem. Inoue flashed in and out of range on full Fibre Optic.
Photo Credit: Naoki Fukuda for Top Rank
After securing undisputed status at bantamweight, Inoue captured the WBO and WBC titles at super-bantamweight. The IBF and WBA king Marlon Tapales stepped into the ring afterwards trying his best to drum up hype for a fight between the pair. Tapales is a competent champion who fought out of skin to defeat MJ Akhmadaliev but let’s be straight, Tapales is just a side note in Inoue’s latest quest to unify yet another division.
I have a lot of respect for Fulton. He’s a great fighter with balls of steel and a varied skillset. That’s what makes the punishment from Inoue even more impressive. Round after round he made a quality unified champion look like fodder.
Taking centre ring from the off, Inoue refused to let Fulton settle down or grow in confidence. There were many surprising factors, including Inoue’s defensive movements, but the difference in speed of hand and foot was immense. Even when Fulton landed his sporadic jab-right hand, the Japanese rolled off of it and came back with even harder shots. Has the power carried up? You better believe it has.
Speaking in the post-fight interview, after Inoue had received the warm applause of the crowd and collected his mandatory certificates, the winner apologised for postponing the first fight and moderately praised Fulton who had exited the stage by this point. ‘The Monster’ improves to 25-0, 22 KOs. Aged 30, he is in his prime. The loser can certainly come again as he sees his unbeaten cherry popped at 21-1 with a paltry eight stoppages.
Pod picks: How many of the panel got it right?
Obviously their styles are different, situations worlds apart and they hold vastly different statuses in the sport, but the all-round nature of Inoue’s display reminded me of Floyd Mayweather’s 2005 destruction of Arturo Gatti. Accuracy, punch picking, shot selection, speed, defensive moves - it had it all.
In the chief supporting contest Robeisy Ramirez made light work of his first WBO title challenger, Satoshi Shimizu, stopping the Yokohama man in round five. The tall upright Shimizu was strong and game but his eye began closing in the opening round and his stiff replies made him a sitting duck for Ramirez’s flexible attacks. Nose flowing with blood, taking a knee in the fifth, Shimizu was under immense pressure when stopped. A brave effort but in truth Shimizu should be nowhere near world level.
MAXIMUM MISERY AS KAMBOSOS GETS A GIFT
After 12 rounds of action, Tim Bradley described the performance of Maxi Hughes as a masterclass as he appeared to sweep home on points. The judges thought otherwise, rewarding George Kambosos with a majority decision victory. It seemed extremely harsh on the visitor.
Lucky? Aussie winner (left) feels he did enough, but many disagreed
Hughes’ sneaky body shots were working early on. Kambosos struggled with Maxi’s southpaw movement as the Yorkshireman drew him in and punished the former world champion with sharp left hands to body and head. Hughes caused a cut over Kambosos’ right eye with a pinpoint left hand in the fifth session before suffering a cut of his own following a head clash.
The ESPN crew were becoming increasingly incensed by Hughes’ use of a slicing follow-through elbow. At the end they were singing his praises despite the verdict which was booed widely and even surprised Shakur Stevenson sitting at ringside.
In the chief supporting contest, Keyshawn Davis continued his journey as a blue chip prospect by scoring a solid 10-round points win over Francesco Patera. The Belgian resident was dropped in round eight and struggled to land enough clean punches to win rounds. That said, Patera had not tasted defeat in six years and provided a very good test for Davis who is nailed on to become at least a world champion in the future.
SKY NEED TO RECONSIDER BEN SHALOM
An anonymous boxing pal texted me at the weekend saying, “It’s a sad state of affairs when it’s a Saturday night in July and Sky Sports is showing a repeat of Charles Martin’s latest fight”. Quite the observation! Little did we know when complaining about Adam Smith for all those years that one day we would pine for the structure and consistency he brought to the table.
Sky have worked through many different promoters over the years. Frank Warren, Barry then Eddie Hearn, Mick Hennessy, Frank and Eugene Maloney have all come and gone. A new era featuring Ricky Hatton and Barry McGuigan fell by the wayside. Sky are currently providing a fairly dismal summer of domestic action and it must be down in some part to the new man at the helm: Boxxer’s Ben Shalom.
Whenever Eddie left Sky for DAZN and I first heard that Ben was taking over I was a little surprised by the move but felt he would be a front man for more experienced hands. Perhaps that is the case. Regardless of names and personalities fronting shows, a few solid efforts aside, the overall product needs to improve. I’m not overly familiar with Shalom’s backstory but Sky must have been suitably impressed by his pitch to hand over the keys.
The wider question of Sky’s interest and involvement is also open to debate. Signing a deal with Top Rank allows them to televise American content, which is a nice bonus. On the domestic front we see the likes of Adam Azim and Ben Whitaker steadily ascending as possible future stars, while being told they are the second coming of Muhammad Ali and Roy Jones respectively. Nothing new there. The wider Sky agenda has helped push women’s boxing to the forefront which has resulted in a few hits and a pile of mrs (sorry).
The calming presence of Mick Hennessy at ringside adds confidence, even though Mick was never able to weather the storm as a standalone entity. Which leads to another point. Back in the day Sky would flit between promoters. Tommy Gilmour in Aberdeen one week, Barry Hearn in Belfast the next, Frank Maloney in Bethnal Green, you get the idea. Bring us a good card with a quality headliner and we’ll take it rather than relying on one single promoter to start off strong and get comfortable.
In conclusion, it’s about the delivery rather than the personality. Good fights could be promoted by Mr Blobby so long as they engage and entertain. If someone is delivering content in a fur coat and no knickers, or no content at all, fans will start grumbling.
NUTHOUSE NOTES
There was heartbreak for Lee McGregor in Scotland on Friday night as he lost a vacant IBO title fight against Erik Robles Ayala. Despite being the bigger man McGregor spent much of his time burrowing inside trying to battle with the Mexican. Bobbing and weaving away from the first three punches, Lee stayed in range long enough to cop the next three. Robles’ recurring strategy was to turn up the heat over the final 30 seconds of rounds.
Even though this is officially his first defeat, McGregor’s career has contained hits and misses ever since a close win over Kash Farooq in 2019. Robles had never been past eight rounds and was feeling sorry for himself before a second wind caught his sails in the 11th and 12th and he closed strong to capture a unanimous verdict.
Promoted by the Sauerlands, televised on Channel 5, it was a top notch main event, reminiscent of the honest trade scraps Mick Hennessy used to provide. Devastated by the loss, McGregor scraped himself off the canvas after hearing the decision and paraded the victor around the ring. It was a classy move from the loser.
Photo Credit: Edinburgh News
Whenever Arnold Barboza Jr seems close to a big shot something gets in the way. 10 years as a pro, unbeaten in 28 outings, the Californian has been closing in on a shot at Teofimo Lopez who seems reluctant to face him and trashes his rival at every turn. A fight with Regis Prograis fell through last month supposedly due to the financial demands of Barboza’s team. Prograis is now rumoured to be facing Devin Haney next, so that fight seems further away than ever for luckless Arnold.
Now the 31-year-old has had his Top Rank contract terminated by mutual consent. Talk of Barboza operating as a free agent is wide of the mark as he lacks the name power to force the hand of opponents and will need to sign with a promoter if he is to finally grab a title shot. DAZN and PBC will be watching with interest as the member of the who-needs-him-club seeks a big shot.
Thanks for reading! Drop a little heart or even a comment if you get a minute. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Speak to you all next week…
About Steve: Experienced boxing writer, author of 8 books and podcaster of over 400 eps. 20 years in the sport. Covered hundreds of shows for newspapers and Boxing News magazine. Chief video script writer for Motivedia channel and BN+. For enquiries: stevenwellings1982@gmail.com.
Great write up on the fight Steve. Let's just hope the weekends clash is as good as what we saw today
Better off watching Charles Martin reruns over Big Fraze doing demolition jobs on Bulgarian cruiserweights