Naoya Inoue put on a short but impressive show for his home crowd, as he defeated Nonito Donaire at the Saitama Super Arena in his native Japan. The 29-year-old forced a technical knockout after just one and a half rounds.
After Inoue landed a short right punch at the very end of the first round, with the bell briefly saving the Filipino after he hit the deck, the Japanese fighter then upped his rhythm for the second round and the referee had to stop the fight with one minute and 38 seconds still left on the clock in that second round.
“In the first round, I received one punch from Donaire that made me wake up,” Inoue said after the fight.
“I knew I had to win this fight so tried to finish the fight at that moment in the second round.”
It was a statement win for the Japanese fighter, widely considered one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world.
He already defeated Donaire in November 2019, with that fight going all 12 rounds, but here he was much better than the veteran boxer and Inoue‘s record is now 23-0, with this Tuesday’s victory his 20th by way of knockout.
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