Naoya Inoue will underscore his superstar status when he puts his undisputed super bantamweight title on the line against Luis Nery at the Tokyo Dome on May 6.
Fearsome power-puncher Inoue cleaned up in the space of two fights at 122 lbs in 2023, showing his much-vaunted KO capabilities transferred to the higher weight division as he stopped Stephen Fulton to claim the WBC and WBO titles before ripping the IBF and WBA belts from Marlon Tapales.
Nery is the next man in line and is an intriguing dance partner having established himself as the bad body of the piece on account of previously being banned from fighting in Japan.
He returns to the Land of the Rising Sun at one of its most iconic venues. The 55,000-capacity Tokyo Dome has not hosted boxing since 1990 but is somewhat synonymous with the sport on account of what went down there almost three-and-a-half decades ago.
James ‘Buster’ Douglas, a 42-1 underdog, famously beat up and got off the canvas to stop Mike Tyson and win the world heavyweight title. In terms of nights where he kept his teeth to himself, it remains the most infamous of Iron Mike’s career.
WATCH: Naoya Inoue vs. Luis Nery, exclusively on ESPN+
Nowadays, Tyson is all in as a member of the Inoue fan club. In a 2023 episode of his podcast HotBoxin’, the heavyweight great lavished praise on “The Monster”.
“He [Inoue] is a mean son of a b****. He don’t look like much, but he’s better than Manny Pacquiao,” Tyson said.
The Pacquiao comparison instantly set tongues wagging and it came before Inoue’s clinical rampage through the super bantamweight division. As he prepares to walk out at a venue fit for a true great, it’s too tantalising not to ponder the fantasy matchup Tyson invoked.
There are so many imponderables and intangibles but, one thing for sure, there wouldn’t be any 42-1 outsider in this fight.
Pacquiao’s status as one of the finest boxers of the 21st century largely rests upon his exploits in little higher up the divisions, particularly his run at welterweight when he became a mainstream pound-for-pound star.
But Pacquiao’s incredible resume saw him rack up titles across eight divisions, starting down at flyweight. Inoue is now a four-weight champion across light flyweight, super flyweight, bantamweight and super bantam, reigning as undisputed across the latter two.
MORE: Will Naoya Inoue become pound-for-pound No. 1 if he beats Luis Nery?
In part, this week feels like a time to ponder a mythic showdown with Pacquiao because of the division where Inoue now rules. ‘Pacman’ made his US debut at super bantamweight in 2001 and produced a sensational performance on the undercard of Oscar De La Hoya’s WBC super welterweight challenge against Javier Castillejo, unseating IBF champion Lehlo Ledwaba.
Entering the ring as a late replacement for Enrique Sanchez and a clear betting underdog, Pacquiao was ferocious and overwhelmed Ledwaba, decking him with a left hand in round two and dropping him twice more to stop him in the sixth.
He made four defences of his 122lbs title before stepping up to beat Marco Antonio Barrera at featherweight — the start of Pacquiao’s true legacy-building phase and an incredible series of fights against Barrera, Erik Morales and his greatest rival Juan Manuel Marquez.
That’s how the story of Pacquiao the Hall of Famer begins, but how would Pacquiao the 23-year-old tearaway fare against Inoue and his liquidising punch power?
The fight would surely see both men fighting fire with fire, while deploying their arsenal in very different ways. Pacquiao’s incredible skills, speed and volume could threaten to overwhelm the more methodical Inoue during the first half of the contest. The Japanese hero’s thrilling first bout with Nonito Donaire and his fleeting struggles with Tapales’ mid-round footwork last time out would be points of encouragement for their illustrious countryman.
In some respects, it’s easy to envisage the version of Pacquiao who went on to halt Barrera and Morales dishing out some of the same pain to Inoue, but if we’re talking knockouts we’re in The Monster’s house.
Only three of Inoue’s 25 professional opponents have heard the final bell. The most recent of those, Donaire, was ruthlessly dispatched within two rounds of their rematch. There are fighters who carry damaging, fight-ending power. Pacquiao was certainly one of those. Then you have true rarities like Inoue with otherworldly means of destruction in their fists.
Inoue’s power looms over this fantasy fight. Pacquiao had suffered two knockout losses by the time he took down Ledwaba, having boiled perilously down to flyweight for too long. Unheralded Filipino Rustico Torrecampo rendered Manny briefly unconscious with an overhand left that was compounded by the fighters colliding on his follow-through. Bonsai Sangsurat wrecked Pacquiao with a body shot.
The super bantamweight version of Pacquiao was brilliant and would represent a significant step up compared to the elite opposition Inoue has conquered. But he was a little wilder in those days and Inoue’s knockout capabilities sometimes means his ringcraft and sublime technique go under the radar.
If that side of his game was on point he could ride out the Pacquiao storm. Inoue, that mean son of a b**** would then land telling blows on a man who had shown he could be stopped at that stage of his career.
