Naoya Inoue defends his undisputed super bantamweight championship against Luis Nery on May sixth on the Tokyo Dome in Japan. The fight was announced last month, but Top Rank is announcing it again for some reason.
Unfortunately, many U.S. boxing fans won’t see this event live resulting from the early morning time on ESPN+. It starts at 4 a.m. ET/1 a.m. PT. East Coast fans likely won’t be up at 4 am to look at the cardboard on ESPN+. The time is inconvenient for U.S fans.
A Less Than Ideal Match-Up
Perhaps Top Rank figured that U.S. fans wouldn’t be wanting to see the event because Inoue selected Nery, a fighter who was knocked out recently. That is the fallacious guy for Monster Inoue to be fighting if he desires to get U.S. fans enthusiastic about his May sixth event.
Put Inoue in with Luis Alberto Lopez, and also you’ve got an American audience that might be greater than willing to rise up at 4:00 am to look at it.
Top Rank calls this “the most important boxing event” Japan has ever seen. however it’s unclear why. Nery was already knocked out by Brandon Figueroa in 2021
. The undercard is a mixed bag for May sixth, with some okay fights, but nothing out of this world for it to be called the “biggest boxing event” within the history of Japan.
Undercard A Mixed Bag
- Jason “Mayhem” Moloney vs. Yoshiki Takei
- Takuma Inoue vs. Sho Ishida
Seigo Yuri Akui vs. Taku Kuwahara
It’s an honest scrap, but not the fight that fans wanted. Inoue is hoping back moving up featherweight after the tough time he had in his last fight against Marlon Taples.
The Lopez Factor
That was a grueling match for ‘Monster’ Inoue, so it’s not surprising that he’s decided to remain at 122 slightly than go as much as 126 and be expected to face Luis Alberto Lopez, Raymond Ford, Rey Vargas, and Robeisy Ramirez.
“Naoya Inoue is the world’s best fighter, a young man who amazes me every time he enters the ring. Luis Nery is a tricky challenger, but I fully expect Inoue to get the job done in front of greater than 50,000 fans on the Tokyo Dome,” said Top Rank promoter Bob Arum.
“Along with this incredible principal event, we now have a spectacular undercard highlighted by Jason Moloney, a road warrior coming to Japan determined to point out he’s the world’s best bantamweight.”
