Why ‘The Monster’ Inoue is 7th best fighter on planet due to frightening power
SunSport's boxing expert explains why he rates Japan's world bantamweight champion so highly in his pound-for-pound list
If anyone deserves to be called a Baby Face Assassin it's Naoya Inoue. but the Japanese, perhaps more appropriately, have nicknamed him The Monster.
Inoue certainly turns into a scary beast once he climbs through the ropes.
It's astonishing how someone who stands just 5ft 5ins and weighs 8st 6lb can generate such devastating power.
He has knocked out fifteen of his seventeen opponents and there's no doubt pound-for-pound he is considered as highly dangerous among the bantams as Wilder and Joshua are in the heavyweight division.
Inoue can take men out with either hand but it's his murderous body punching that his victims have good reason to fear most.
And his left hook to the liver is the one that paralyses opponents.
If anyone wants evidence of just how much that blow hurts they can ask Doncaster's Jamie McDonnell.
The Brit defended his WBA belt against Inoue in Tokyo seven months ago and was completely overwhelmed in just 1min 52 secs of the first round.
Inoue is already a three-weight world champion and has entered the World Boxing Super-Series that includes Ireland's Ryan Burnett, which gets under way early next year.
His semi-final against Emmanuel Rodriguez, Puerto Rico's unbeaten IBF champion, is a lip-smacking prospect.
Inoue said "I will be participating with pleasure and consider it an honour to be part of this great competition."
And he added ominously: "Of course I'm going to win it."
Inoue has every reason to be super-confident and I doubt there many will bet against him being recognised as the world's No 1.
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