Naoya Inoue's competition these days isn't measured by the names at or near the top of the various pound-for-pound rankings. It's those we in boxing revere as the best to ever pull gloves over their hands.
Yeah, we could compare him to Terence Crawford, Oleksandr Usyk, Canelo Alvarez and the likes, but Inoue's talent, dominance and will to win means he should be compared against names such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong, Harry Greb and Muhammad Ali.
He's that good. He's that mentally tough. He's fast. He's powerful. He's technical. He's single-minded.
He's incredible.
Inoue found himself on the canvas courtesy of a Luis Nery left hook in the first round of his defense of the undisputed bantamweight title before all of the 55,000-plus in the Tokyo Dome had a chance to settle into their seats to watch him take on the elite two-division former champion on Monday.
A little more than 34 years earlier, Mike Tyson was on the same mat in the same ring and lost the undisputed heavyweight title to Buster Douglas, struggling to find his mouthpiece as he was stopped in 10 as a 42-1 favorite.
Inoue, though, is different from Tyson and nearly every fighter who has ever set foot into a boxing ring. He got up and simply went back to work and put on a master class before stopping Nery with a pair of blazing right hands at 1:22 of the sixth. Inoue put Nery down in the second and the fifth and then sent him down for good in the sixth.
Bob Arum is in his sixth decade promoting, and many of the greats in the sport's history have fought under his banner. Arum promoted Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns, Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather, George Foreman and a galaxy of other superstars.
Inoue, in Arum's. view, stands alone.
"I sometimes get carried away, but I have been in this thing for 60 years, and this kid is the best fighter I have ever seen," Arum told KevinIole.com after the bout. "I have never seen anything like it. It's incredible."
Nery adviser Sean Gibbons lamented the missed opportunity for Nery to score the massive upset, but he is also astute enough to recognize greatness when he sees it.
"For sure, speed and timing," Gibbons said. "For Nery, it was a game of inches, man. So close."
In his last five bouts, Inoue has faced opponents who, going into their matches with him, had a combined record of 164-12. Inoue finished all of them. He stopped Nonito Donaire in the second on June 7, 2022, for three of the four bantamweight belts. He unified the bantamweight titles six months later when he knocked out Paul Butler on Dec. 13, 2022, in the 11th. He moved up to super bantamweight after that and on July 25, he lifted the WBC and WBO belts from Stephen Fulton by stopping him in the sixth.
He unified the 122-pound championship the day after Christmas when he knocked out Marlon Tapales in the 10th. And on Monday, after that first-round knockdown, he rallied to stop the 35-1 Nery in the sixth.
Boxing isn't what it was 60 years ago, and so it's often that the greats of this era are short-changed. In many cases, that's appropriate, but it's wildly incorrect when it comes to Inoue.
Power comes in many forms in boxing, and Inoue brings all facets of it. He has the sheer strength to take people out. He's got speed the likes of which we haven't seen before. His timing is pitch-perfect and his punching accuracy is remarkable.
Nery said before the fight that he felt Inoue was overrated and he wanted to knock him out early to prove it. Nery was true to his word and attacked, and put Inoue down in the first from a left hook.
"When you fight the way he does, aggressively and offensively like that, that's going to happen occasionally," Arum said of the knockdown. "But look what he did."
But Nery was sadly mistaken in his assessment. Inoue landed 107 of the 239 punches he threw, connecting on 44.8 percent of his shots as tracked by CompuBox. Significantly, he landed nearly 48.8 percent of his power shots.
He's got the power like Tyson and the speed of Mayweather and the accuracy of Leonard and the body punching of Chavez, the sheer toughness of Hagler and the desire like Ali.
Decades from now, they'll be talking about him in reverential tones. Fortunately, the Japanese fans recognize what they are seeing. The Tokyo Dome was filled nearly five hours before Inoue fought, and the people stayed until Inoue had finished speaking in the ring after the fight.
Inoue raised his record to 27-0 with his 23rd knockout. Remarkably, he is 22-0 with 20 KOs in world title fights. He not only wins, but he puts on a show every time out.
It was a scene to witness.
It was history.
It was one of the greatest to ever do it.
Appreciate him while you have the chance, because guys like this rarely come along.
Naoki Fukuda/Top Rank
Naoya Inoue heads to a neutral corner after dropping Luis Nery in their bout in Tokyo Monday for the undisputed super bantamweight title. Inoue won by TKO at 1:22 of the sixth round.