- 3 months ago
Boxing Pros Are TERRIFIED of Naoya Inoue "He's the Fu*king Monster!"
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00When boxing professionals talk about Naoya Inoue, the conversation immediately changes tone.
00:20The casual analysis disappears, the jokes stop, the voices drop.
00:25Because Inoue isn't discussed like a normal champion, he's discussed like a force that needs to be respected before it's even understood.
00:55Trainers, former world champions, cut men, sparring partners, they all say the same thing in different words.
01:06Watching Inoue on tape is one thing, standing in front of him is something else entirely.
01:11The speed doesn't translate on screen, the power doesn't make sense until you feel it.
01:16And by the time most fighters realize what they're dealing with, it's already too late.
01:21He's a great finisher, I think he's the best finisher in boxing.
01:24He's Joe Lewis, he's Mike Tyson, he's Jack Dempsey.
01:28Three of the greatest finishers in the history of the sport, he's all of them.
01:32Multiple former champions have admitted that Inoue breaks one of boxing's oldest illusions.
01:38The idea that size automatically equals safety.
01:42Fighters who came up in heavier divisions talk about him the way heavyweights talk about Prime Tyson.
01:47Not because of raw weight, but because of inevitability.
01:5121.5 pounds for the Undefeated Challenger, Armandalee Del Rey Picasso.
02:10Here they are face-to-face, 24 hours from stepping into the ring.
02:17Challenger and champion both undefeated.
02:21Armandalee Del Rey Picasso.
02:26Now you're the master Inoue.
02:30One former unified champion said that Inoue doesn't hunt knockouts the way most punchers do.
02:52He builds them.
02:53Every jab, every feint, every half-step forward is laying bricks for a collapse that feels unavoidable.
03:00By the time the finishing punch comes, the fight has already been decided mentally.
03:05Trainers who study Inoue obsessively point out something most fans miss.
03:10His discipline under chaos.
03:12When opponents swing wildly, Inoue doesn't retreat in panic.
03:17He tightens.
03:18He shortens his punches.
03:19He becomes more dangerous the more reckless the fight gets.
03:23Every time he threw one or two, Inoue came back with fours and fives and sixes.
03:28Yeah.
03:28Credit goes to Picasso for putting a great show on.
03:31He pushed Inoue back at times.
03:34But Inoue was just too good.
03:36I mean, he was too classy.
03:38He was sharp.
03:39Them body shots, head shots.
03:40I mean, he was just beating him to every punch.
03:42It's almost like a body stab, isn't it?
03:44It really, really puts a lot of weight into those body shots.
03:47We were sat inside and we could hear the noise of them punches.
03:49And I was telling you, wow, did he hear that noise?
03:53I mean, he has power, he has speed, movement, you name it.
03:56But I just feel that Picasso just felt short this time.
04:01He did a great job though, honestly.
04:03When you look at the fight, he did not give up.
04:05Every minute of the fight, he was still there in front of him.
04:08Yeah, you wonder if Picasso, if that's any other super bantamweight not named Inoue,
04:12you wonder if Picasso maybe would have got his hand raised because he did look really good in there, Darren.
04:16And there was moments you felt he was trying to grow into the contest,
04:20but it was just the class and the level of Inoue that just stopped his man building any momentum.
04:27But against anyone else, you feel, yeah, he could have been a real hard night's work.
04:31I don't want to discredit anything that Picasso has done there.
04:33He tried.
04:34He dared to be great.
04:35He was just in there with an elite, a level fighter.
04:38Look, just didn't have the one punch power because he's delivered a nice left hook there.
04:43And look, again, I said it with Nakatani, you're always learning still with 31 bouts
04:48under your, you know, in your career, you're still having to learn.
04:53And there's a couple of moments there where he took a couple of silly...
04:55One veteran coach explained that Inoue fights like someone who's already seen
04:59every possible mistake an opponent can make and memorize the punishment for each one.
05:05That's not just talent.
05:06That's thousands of rounds of suffering, refinement, and controlled violence.
05:12Active fighters are even more honest when they speak off camera.
05:16Several have admitted that they avoid even mentioning Inoue's name when discussing future
05:21opponents.
05:22Not because of fear, but because of realism.
05:25One top contender said that fighting Inoue isn't about having a good night or catching him
05:30with something big.
05:31It's about surviving long enough to find out whether your fundamentals are actually real.
05:37Against Inoue, flashy footwork collapses.
05:40Defensive habits get exposed.
05:42Weak jabs get punished.
05:44Everything you've been getting away with suddenly costs you rounds, and then costs you consciousness.
05:50The fact that I put Inoue on my pound-for-pound list, I don't know, three years ago, whatever
05:55it was, I don't even know how long.
05:57That's true.
05:58And no one...
05:59You've been on him before I even knew who he was.
06:01Ken, no one had him anywhere near it.
06:05They basically barely knew who he was that you just touched on, and obviously dominated
06:11Fulton, or at least put it this way.
06:14He established control right from the start.
06:18He made Fulton...
06:19Fulton's a defensive fighter, a good counterpuncher.
06:23He made him concentrate more on defense and surviving than Fulton really wanted to early.
06:30He set the...
06:32Again, he set the course of the fight.
06:35The mentality of the fight, the theme of the fight, right from the start.
06:39Inoue just never let Fulton really get anything started, or as I said, any rhythm.
06:46He used his jab, again, similar to Crawford.
06:49He used...
06:50The jab was very important for Inoue and for Fulton.
06:54Very important.
06:55Most important weapon of the night.
06:57Inoue uses his jab to stabilize Fulton on the outside.
07:01Then he plays good body shots to take some of his legs away.
07:04He was playing some beautiful body shots.
07:09He stepped out of range very effectively, controlling distance.
07:14He was very good defensively.
07:16You know everyone talked about Fulton's defense?
07:19Inoue's defense.
07:21Yeah, he's a great offensive fighter.
07:23Sparring partners describe him as unsettling.
07:26Not loud.
07:27Not aggressive.
07:28Just focused.
07:30One said the most terrifying thing about Inoue
07:32is how little emotion he shows while dismantling you.
07:36There's no trash talk.
07:38No ego.
07:39No celebration mid-round.
07:41Just quiet adjustments that make every second worse than the last.
07:45Another said Inoue hits harder to the body
07:48than anyone they've ever shared the ring with
07:50and that the pain doesn't explode.
07:53It spreads.
07:54It drains your legs, steals your breath,
07:57and turns movement into a negotiation you're slowly losing.
08:00You become a multiple-weight world champion.
08:04So I'm thinking, what if one day we fight at 140?
08:08I'm talking about future.
08:10And we do it in Japan.
08:11It'll be huge.
08:13Huge.
08:15Mark my words, if it somehow plays out that way,
08:18I think that fight would be one of the biggest pay-per-views.
08:21Even fighters known for their own knockout power
08:24speak about Inoue with caution.
08:26One former champion admitted that watching Inoue
08:29made him question whether his own power was truly elite.
08:33Because Inoue doesn't just knock people out.
08:36He breaks their confidence first.
08:38Fighters start hesitating.
08:40They stop throwing combinations.
08:42They begin looking for exits instead of openings.
08:45The monster is multidimensional.
08:47Yeah, of course.
08:48But have you seen him legitimately be multidimensional?
08:53Yeah.
08:53From a standpoint of being able to,
08:54obviously we know he can punch.
08:55Yeah.
08:56We've seen him get to the body, but...
08:58He's a hibaxi over the point.
08:58I really haven't seen him stay on the outside and counterpunch.
09:02Do you think that's what he's gonna have to do against Fulton?
09:03It's not the point.
09:04The point is you just call him the number one fighter on the planet.
09:06I'm rebound.
09:07But you gotta be able to do it all.
09:09Yeah.
09:09That's when the end comes.
09:11Not in chaos, but in clarity.
09:13A clean shot.
09:15A body punch that folds them.
09:17A right hand that lands like punctuation at the end of a sentence the fight has been writing since round one.
09:23This is like probably billboards all over the place type of fight huge in Japan.
09:28So, you know, I really, if it's in the conversation,
09:32could you see any other fight that Inoue could do that really could be this big?
09:36He could go up to featherweight and fight for the world featherweight championship.
09:39I don't know if it would be as big as this.
09:41Inoue and Akitani right now is probably the biggest fight for both guys for several reasons.
09:47And it would be.
09:48Promoters and analysts agree on one uncomfortable truth.
09:53Inoue is dangerous to the business of hype.
09:56Because hype requires suspense.
09:58And Inoue removes it.
10:00When he fights, the question isn't whether he'll dominate,
10:03but how long the opponent can delay the inevitable.
10:05So when you see, he got the victory over Cool Boy Steff.
10:09Cool Boy Steff, he's not a heavy puncher, good boxer, but far as, you know, Inoue.
10:16He was a Filipino fighter.
10:19He had fought twice.
10:20Donaire.
10:21So Donaire was giving him fits in the first fight.
10:26And if I'm not mistaken, Donaire was somewhere close to 40 or 40 years old when he fought him the first time.
10:32Whereas, he was in his 20s.
10:34So he should have, he should have knocked him out in the first fight.
10:39Fighting a guy, you know, like I said before, you know, at that age.
10:44What I need Inoue to do is, I need him to come fight in the U.S.
10:48Random blood and ear and chest.
10:50I think he's, I think he's a hell of a fighter.
10:53A hell of a fighter.
10:53I'm going to take him away from him.
10:55A hell of a fighter.
10:55And I like him because I see he take a lot of my...
10:58That makes him less flashy to casual fans, but more terrifying to professionals who understand the sport.
11:05One analyst said Inoue doesn't sell drama.
11:08He sells reality.
11:09And reality in boxing is cruel.
11:12Use that to set something up to get a guy going.
11:15Um, he only really lets his hands go if his opponents are hurt.
11:21That's just who he is.
11:23I actually appreciate that about him.
11:24You know, it does a few things.
11:27One, it keeps him safe because it's basically a defense mechanism.
11:31Um, if I'm not wild and loose, you can't really counter me.
11:34Or I just won't slip up and do something stupid.
11:38So, there's not a whole lot that I'm giving you, basically, as an opponent.
11:42Not a lot that I'm giving you.
11:43Um, but also, it preserves energy.
11:46And he can preserve energy.
11:48I mean, the guys at that weight, you know, they're a whole lot smaller.
11:50So, they can definitely preserve energy.
11:52But when you're throwing those single shots, like he does, it preserves energy.
11:58So, he's still fresh in the championship round, which is quite intelligent.
12:02Um, the most telling reactions come from retired fighters.
12:08Men who have nothing left to prove.
12:10Men who've been knocked out, won titles, and lived the consequences of elite boxing.
12:16For this fight, when I saw the two men get into the ring, the first thing that I noticed
12:20straight away was Picasso was carrying an incredibly high guard, defensively keeping
12:24his gloves very, very high, trying to protect his chin.
12:27And one thing I'll say in general about Picasso in this fight is that his defensive awareness
12:31was very, very impressive.
12:33He very rarely dropped his hands after he threw a shot.
12:35His discipline was incredibly good.
12:38But the problem with that is that sometimes it leaves a lack of room for creativity with
12:42fighters.
12:43Yes, it's important to be defensively disciplined.
12:45But if you continue to give the same look over and over again, you're never, ever going
12:49to beat a guy like Inoue.
12:50The first thing I said at the beginning of my live about this guy was I looked at him and
12:54I went, his elbows are incredibly flared.
12:55He had the high guard, but his elbows were very, very far forwards, which instantly made
12:59me think he's giving the body to Inoue, he's offering it to him.
13:02Now that can sometimes be done because it's to create counter-punching opportunities.
13:06But in this instance, I think it was just that he was so concerned about protecting his head
13:09about not...
13:10When they talk about Inoue, they don't compare him to current fighters.
13:14They compare him to eras.
13:16They say he belongs in any generation, any decade, any rule set, because what he has isn't
13:23dependent on trends, it's built on fundamentals sharpened into a weapon.
13:27For Inoue, and Inoue took it.
13:29He took the invitation and he constantly stabbed to the body of Picasso.
13:33And in fact, I'd say that this fight kind of was a story of the body shots in many ways.
13:37Picasso, like Inoue, had most of his success to the body.
13:40The left hook in particular was a money shot for Picasso.
13:43But the difference between these two men was so obvious to see when they were standing
13:47in the pocket and they were exchanging left hooks in particular to the body.
13:51The impact of Inoue's shots was totally different from Picasso's.
13:55It was like Picasso had cushions, pillows inside his gloves, and Inoue had a bloody egg
14:00weight.
14:00It was damaging, it was vicious, and Picasso simply couldn't hang in the pocket for long
14:05periods of time with Inoue.
14:06I mentioned the lead hand of Inoue there to the body, but the lead hand of Inoue in general
14:10in this fight was incredible to see.
14:12I mean, the sharpness, the speed on it, the different levels that he throws it from, it's
14:16unbelievably unpredictable and difficult to read as a...
14:19And that's why boxing pros react to Naoya Inoue the way they do.
14:24Not with disbelief, not with exaggeration, but with recognition.
14:28They see a fighter who doesn't rely on luck, controversy, or timing.
14:33They see someone who forces opponents to confront the pure truth of boxing.
14:38That skill, discipline, and controlled violence always rise to the top.
14:43I stated disappointing for boxing, disappointing for Japan.
14:47Being honest with you, it's just a horrific mismatch.
14:50It's hard to say Inoue's ducking Akhmad Aliyev, but he actually is.
14:54I'm telling you now, Inoue will not fight Akhmad Aliyev at any point.
15:00I bet you he doesn't fight in September or December Akhmad Aliyev, even though he's been
15:05ordered to do it.
15:05And I bet he vacates the belt as well.
15:07Four fight fans in Japan, four fight fans around the world.
15:10Inoue isn't just winning fights, he's reminding the sport what elite actually looks like.
15:23And that reminder is uncomfortable, because it exposes how rare true mastery actually is
15:29in modern boxing.
Comments