Naoya Inoue, the undisputed junior featherweight champion of the world, makes the seventh defence of his four belts in a super fight at the Tokyo Dome this Monday, facing a dangerous southpaw who carries both a heavy punch and a heavy past.
The Monster defends his throne
Inoue — known as “The Monster” — puts his IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO 122lb titles on the line against Luis Nery on 6 May 2024, in the first boxing event at the iconic Tokyo Dome since Mike Tyson was stunned by Buster Douglas in February 1990. The 31-year-old Japanese superstar, 26-0 with 23 knockouts at the time of the bout, has been flawless since winning his first world title in April 2014. He became the first Japanese fighter to be crowned undisputed champion in two weight classes and was named 2023 Fighter of the Year by ESPN.com and Ring Magazine. In his most recent outing, in December 2023, he knocked out Marlon Tapales in the tenth round to unify the division. Inoue had earlier captured the WBC and WBO super bantamweight titles by stopping Stephen Fulton in the eighth.
Despite his dominance — he has won his last seven fights by stoppage and knocked out 15 of his past 16 opponents — Inoue has shown vulnerability. In November 2019 he suffered a right orbital bone fracture and a broken nose in his brutal war with Nonito Donaire, and he also fought with a shoulder injury in that contest.
Nery’s redemption arc
Luis Nery, a 29-year-old former two-weight world champion from Mexico, represents a genuine threat despite being a heavy underdog. “Pantera” holds a record of 35-1 with 27 knockouts as of May 2024. A southpaw with a 65-inch reach (four inches shorter than Inoue’s), Nery once held the WBC bantamweight title after defeating Shinsuke Yamanaka in 2017 and winning the rematch in 2018. He later claimed the vacant WBC super bantamweight crown against Aaron Alameda in 2020. His last fight before facing Inoue was a second-round TKO of Froilan Saludar in July 2023.
Nery has won four consecutive bouts since being knocked out by Brandon Figueroa in May 2021, a defeat that cost him his WBC 122lb title. His February 2023 slugfest with Azat Hovhannisyan was voted The Ring Magazine’s 2023 Fight of the Year. Yet his path to this super fight has been deeply complicated by his history in Japan. In 2018 the Japan Boxing Commission banned him indefinitely after he failed to make weight and tested positive for the banned substance zilpaterol before his rematch with Yamanaka. He also missed weight for the first Yamanaka fight. The ban was lifted specifically for this encounter, giving Nery a shot at redemption on the same soil where he once infuriated fans and officials.
Nery’s style is brutish and aggressive — a hard-punching southpaw with a high knockout ratio — but his defence has been described as wild and unprotected. Figueroa mauled and stopped him. Many analysts believe Inoue’s speed, precision and devastating body attack will prove too much. The Mexican does have a puncher’s chance: Inoue suffered the first knockdown of his career in round one against Nery, before recovering to stop him in the sixth round. Nery also hit the canvas in the second and fifth rounds. The betting odds reflected the gulf in class, with Inoue as low as -1400 and Nery a +800 underdog. Of twenty experts polled by The Ring Magazine, eighteen predicted an Inoue stoppage.
Legacy on the line
The Tokyo Dome card, part of Top Rank’s “MAYhem Tour”, offers Inoue the chance to add yet another exceptional chapter to a legacy already regarded as one of the sport’s finest among modern pound-for-pound greats. Weigh-in day saw both men comfortably make weight — Inoue at 121.75lb, Nery at 120.8lb — a stark contrast to Nery’s previous failure in Japan. The fight was announced in January 2024 and takes place on a Monday, with main event ringwalks expected around 6 a.m. ET / 11 a.m. UK, broadcast on ESPN+ in the United States and Amazon Prime in Japan.
On the undercard, significant results underlined the depth of Japanese boxing. In the co-feature, WBO bantamweight champion Jason Moloney lost his title to Yoshiki Takei by unanimous decision. Naoya Inoue’s younger brother Takuma successfully defended his WBA bantamweight belt against Sho Ishida, also by unanimous decision. Seigo Yuri Akui retained the WBA flyweight crown with a unanimous decision over Taku Kuwahara, and TJ Doheny stopped Bryl Bayogos by TKO.
The super bantamweight division has been home to legends such as Manny Pacquiao, Nonito Donaire and Erik Morales. Inoue became its first undisputed champion on 26 December 2023, and his seventh defence of those four belts — on the very stage where Douglas shocked the world — cements his status as a fighter whose story is already written in the sport’s history books.
