Road to Inoue vs Nery: Naoya Inoue and his Bantamweight Legacy

The undisputed super bantamweight champion, Naoya “Monstruo” Inoue, will defend his championship against Luis “Pantera” Nery, former world bantamweight and super bantamweight champion, on Monday, May 6 at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. The fight is organized by the Top Rank companies , Teiken Promotions and Ohashi Promotions, and will be televised by ESPN for the United States and Latin America and will arrive through AMAZON for Japan.

Two weeks before  his historic clash,   we remember the night when Naoya Inoue won his first undisputed title in the bantamweight division.

The Japanese fighter Naoya Inoue managed to close the year 2022 in brilliant fashion by becoming the undisputed champion of Japanese origin by defeating the British Paul Butler via KO in the 11th round.

2022 was a very important year for Naoya, because in June he managed to win the WBC bantamweight crown by defeating the Filipino legend, Nonito Donaire, in a long-awaited revenge fight.

With the firm intention of becoming the undisputed monarch, Naoya challenged the champion Paul Butler. The fight took place at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo. Inoue took the necessary time and did not rush to fragment Butler’s opposition, who seemed more interested in avoiding the power of the ‘Monster’ than in achieving victory.

The end came at 1:09 of round 11. A combination of blows from Inoue cascaded  Butler to the canvas, and he was unable to rise before the decibel of ten was counted.

With this victory, Naoya became the first fighter from Japan to become undisputed champion and confirmed his position as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters. Months later he would manage to win the undisputed super bantamweight championship also.