Left Hook Kryptonite hits again: Inoue’s defensive defects shed shade over future dominance

Naoya Inoue Inoue 30-0, 27 food) had a harder time than expected to defeat Ramon Cardenas (26-2, 14 COs) Sunday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Tonight Inoue needed his offense to sponsor him when Cardenas knocked him down in round two. That Knockdown comes from a left hook. That punch seems to be Inoue’s Kryptonite. He was injured by the same shot as Luis Nery and Nonito Donaire. Inoue leaves himself open to that punch by dropping his guard.

KnockDown Scare

For the second time in the last four battles, ‘Monster’ Inoue found himself on the deck after being nailed by a left hand. Cardenas landed on the left which kept Naoya on the canvas to the score of seven. He was fortunate that there was no more time left on the clock, because Cardenas looked like he would have completed the work in that round.

It is good that inoue later returned to pull off Cardenas to get a hasty referee in the eighth round. However, this battle showed that Naoya did not have the chin to defeat fighters at elite level as he moved to featherweight. After tonight’s scare, I doubt that inoue will move to the 126 -pound division because they hit too hard in that weight class.

Even if he stays with Super Bantamweight to play it safely, he will not be able to continue much longer until he is knocked out by one of the young contenders. The battle tonight showed that if Naoya moved to featherweight, he would not perform in that section unless he was more closely matched than he was already through his promoters.

Featherweight doubt

Inoue cannot be thrown in with the WBO champion of the WBO 126 pound Rafael Espinoza and maybe not even the WBA champion Nick Ball. They hit too hard, and they would use the poor chin of Naoya. If Naoya prefers to continue to continue his plan to go up to 126 to capture more belts, he must stay away from these sharks:

Nick ball
Rafael Espinoza
Bruce Carrington
Angelo Leo
Otabek kholmatov
Brandon figueroa