Boxing, Inoue the Monster strikes again: he runs over Fulton and takes the fourth world championship

Naoya Inoue he is a quiet thirty-year-old. He started boxing in elementary school and hasn’t stopped since. He met a girl in high school and married her after dating for seven years. The couple have three children, and Naoya’s biggest regret is not being able to attend the birth of his third child due to the pandemic. In short, a serenity that clashes with that alias that accompanies the Japanese in the ring, the ‘Monster’. However, everything becomes less out of tune if you observe him in the ring. As a professional he went up there 25 times and has always won, on 22 occasions before the limit. The latest today at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo in one of the most anticipated matches of the year: the resistance of Stephen Fulton, strenuous, it lasted eight rounds, then the blows of the Japanese crumbled him until the sacrosanct intervention of the referee, who transformed a full-fledged knockout into a kot.

Inoue world champion in 4 different categories

A victory that allows Inoue to add another piece to an already extraordinary career. In fact, the Japanese also takes possession of the world title of super bantamweight (Wbc and Wbo versions) in his first match in the category after having already been world in fly fly and bantamweight. And on the horizon, by his own admission, the climb to the fifth crown in 5 different categories. A success made even greater by the level of the opponent: Fulton was and remains a champion, who up to now had never lost in the 21 matches played.

Fulton’s courage is not enough

The American had the courage to face the challenge away, he brought his glory to the Japanese ring (it should be remembered that he was the keeper) and his story, especially difficult in a childhood spent in the slums of Philadelphia. He lost, but he did honor to boxing. In short, he is a challenge between champions, like the one that in the Italian night between Saturday and Sunday will decree the king of welterweight between Errol Spence and Terence Crawford. Challenges that should also make boxers of other categories reflect, first of all that of the maximum, who despite the presence of level people, even from a charismatic point of view, sees the best systematically avoiding each other.

The devastating power of Inoue

Returning to the match, Fulton would need all his technique to win. However, Inoue immediately took away his certainties, hitting him with a very hard left jab at the ready and often using a right foot capable of intimidating him too when he fell on the boxing gloves. After two rounds of this type, Fulton tried to come out of his shell mostly with his straight right, but Inoue was also perfect in throw-in boxing. The best shot, a right to the temple, Fulton placed in the seventh round. The best series, which closed the match, was scored by Inoue in the eighth: very fast, precise and powerful right foot doubled by the left hook. Fulton went down, got to his feet but was hit by a volley of shots that knocked him down. If it is fair to say that world boxing currently has 4/5 phenomena, surely one of these comes from Japan.