In this corner, Naoki Fukuda, world champion of boxing photos

Naoki Fukuda captured this critical moment when Naoya Inoue landed a left hook that sent Michael Dasmarinas to the canvas in the third round of their June 19 bout in Las Vegas. (Provided by Naoki Fukuda)

World champion boxer Naoya Inoue’s body blows land so quickly that his opponent might crumple to the canvas before the crowd even knows what hit him.

But the shots of another Japanese at ringside are even faster.

Naoki Fukuda, 55, is often called the best boxing photographer in the world. And his photos of a recent Inoue fight show why.

On June 19, Inoue stopped Michael Dasmarinas in the third round to defend his world bantamweight titles in Las Vegas.

In the third round, “The Monster” landed a left hook to the body that knocked down Dasmarinas.

“Naoki’s shot,” as his photos are called, captured the moment of impact when Inoue’s glove sank deep into Dasmarinas’ abdomen. The photo shows the opponent’s muscles distorted and rippling like a wave from the power of the punch.

“I saw the fist sinking in with a large explosive sound,” Fukuda recalled. “I succeeded in snapping that picture in a perfect manner.”

The freelance photographer was the only Japanese allowed to work below the ring at the bout.

Everyone in the boxing photographing community knows Fukuda, who started working in the United States in 2001 and has won the top photo prize in the Boxing Writers Association of America’s annual contest four times.

The Ring, the most prestigious U.S. boxing magazine, reported on Fukuda in a special feature titled “Undisputed Champion” in 2014.

His many vivid images, often taken in one-thousandth of a second, have adorned the covers of sports magazines published around the globe.

Fukuda’s uncanny ability to never miss a key moment in a fight has earned him the nickname: “the man who predicts punches.”

He said he synchronizes his eye movements with those of the dominant fighter so he can release the shutter the instant the opponent lets his guard down.

Fukuda began pursuing a career in photography when he was in his mid-30s.

He has never laced up the gloves as a prize-fighter, but he gained insight into the sport through his interactions with a childhood friend.

Naoki Fukuda’s photo shows the surface of Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s right arm recoiling from the punch to the face of Canelo Alvarez in their 2013 fight in Las Vegas. (Provided by Naoki Fukuda)

CHILDHOOD PASSION

Fukuda attended the same junior and senior high schools as Teruyuki Kagawa, now a 55-year-old actor who is also known for his love of boxing.

The two spent much of their younger days together talking about boxing and sharing magazine images of fights.

They analyzed how the boxers moved just before their finishing blows as well the types of punches used.

Fukuda and Kagawa also “camped out” overnight to repeatedly watch an overseas boxing video that Kagawa obtained. They paused the video to freeze the instant a clean blow landed.

“The experience allowed me to refine something, kind of like a sense of smell, to detect when a knockout would occur based on the atmosphere, foot positioning and timing,” Fukuda said.

Even now, he finds the occasional chance to talk about boxing with Kagawa.

After failing to enter Nihon University’s College of Art to study photography, Fukuda worked as a writer for a boxing magazine.

At age 36, he headed for the United States to pursue a photography career, leaving his wife and small daughter behind in Japan.

Clearly, the ideal spot to shoot boxing photographs is right beside the ring, where the fighters and their reactions can be seen most closely.

But that space below the ring is usually open to only 12 or 13 photographers. For big events, about 10 slots are reserved for photographers from major promoters and cable television broadcasters. Dozens of freelancers vie for the remaining two to three seats.

Early on, Fukuda had no track record in the United States, so he was forced to take shots of the action from seats on the second or even third floors of the venues.

But his reputation as a skilled lensman spread each time he was allowed to work below the ring in relatively minor matches.

In those days, shutter speeds could not keep up with the velocity of the punches, so the boxers’ gloves often appeared blurry in photos.

Fukuda, however, provided clear images by capturing the moment of impact when the punch slows down.

After turning 42, Fukuda signed an exclusive contract with a leading U.S. specialized magazine. He became the only Asian photographer to regularly hold a ringside position.

When he was based in Las Vegas, Fukuda won many awards for his boxing pictures. His works were used in most pamphlets for the so-called fight of century between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao in 2015.

Fukuda felt he “finished everything to be done here” and returned to Japan in 2016.

He is currently trying to showcase Japanese boxing to the rest of the world.

Fukuda said that advanced camera technology allows “anyone to capture critical moments.” But he said that creating moving pieces of work requires strong passion by the photographer.

“I am changing myself to produce new kinds of images,” he said. “This is the responsibility of those stationed below the ring.”