Explosive Naoya Inoue recovers from knockdown to stop brave Ramon Cardenas

LAS VEGAS – Naoya Inoue thrillingly stopped Ramon Cardenas in eight rounds to defend his undisputed junior-featherweight title and reintroduce himself to the US audience in the most emphatic of fashions.

Sunday’s fight at the T-Mobile Arena, on the occasion of Cinco de Mayo weekend, represented his first since June 2021 outside of his home country, when in conditions undermined by the Covid pandemic he stopped the Filipino Michael Dasmarinas.

He has since consistently enhanced his reputation as one of the world’s very finest active fighters, and did so again throughout the course of an entertaining fight with the gutsy Mexican-American Cardenas, who dropped him in the second round and absorbed and fought back against consistent punishment until the referee Thomas Taylor rescued him on his feet.

The 32-year-old Inoue had already described as “written in stone” his plans to fight Murodjon Akhmadaliev on September 14, in the event of the Uzbek winning against an opponent to be confirmed on May 30.

He is also expected to fight in Saudi Arabia in December, but will perhaps come to recognize that in Vegas, against an opponent against which he was the significant favorite, those plans were at risk.

Cardenas’ punch resistance had previously been questioned, in part because in his past fight he had been dropped by the Mexican Bryan Acosta’s left hand. He instead demonstrated admirable punch resistance and ambition, proving the nature of opponent required to force the great Inoue to perform to his best.

If Inoue looked razor sharp from the opening bell, Cardenas, whose natural size advantage was minimal, was only narrowly behind him. The champion’s jab was succeeding where the challenger’s initially wasn’t, and complemented by the measured footwork and sound reflexes that provided the earliest reminder of why he has come to earn such respect.

Inoue succeeded with a straight right hand before the first round concluded, and the same breathtaking hand speed contributed to him landing a left uppercut at the expense of absorbing a jab in the second, and then a right to the body and left to the head. After another left to the body was followed up by a jab, Cardenas swung and fell short, but he then landed a left to the body and a right before being hurt by a left-right-left.

A right to the body from Cardenas backed Inoue up towards the ropes, and after absorbing another right hand he watched Inoue miss with a left and dropped him with a perfectly-timed counter left to the chin. Inoue, not unlike against Mexico’s Luis Nery 12 months earlier, returned to his feet and appeared to have quickly recovered. The bell sounded to end the dramatic second round, suggesting that Cardenas had already missed his chance of recording a life-changing win.

Inoue, perhaps expectedly, let his hands go immediately from the start of the third. Cardenas narrowly missed with another powerful left hand; so too, in turn, did Inoue. Both were briefly hesitant in response to the intent with which they both fought; also therein lied a demonstration that Cardenas had earned “The Monster’s” respect.

Cardenas landed a right-left and then a right to the body before just missing with another right and finding a left to the body that hurt the champion, and followed up doing so with rights to the body and head. Inoue responded with successive right hands; Cardenas twice swung and missed with lefts. Inoue, also, no longer was even close to hesitant. Cardenas, perhaps excessively encouraged by the earlier knockdown, was becoming too focused on landing another and risked prematurely tiring himself out by continuing to miss with further left hands.

From the start of the fourth round the challenger’s forehead was marked up as a consequence of the punches they had traded. He found a right to Inoue’s chin and they then exchanged lefts; he then missed with a right hand at the cost of three successive jabs. Successive left-rights then backed Cardenas up, and were complemented by further lefts to body and head.

The unmistakable impression was that Inoue was intensifying his efforts in the face of his determined challenger, as was shown again when Cardenas was backed up towards the ropes and in further trouble while trapped in the corner, from where he admirably attempted to fight his way out before falling short with another left hand.

When in the fifth Cardenas was backed up in the corner his approach was at risk of looking one-dimensional. He then found an overhand right and a left to the body and threw another wild left. Inoue fought back with a left-right at the cost of a left to the body; Cardenas was also perhaps making one of the most feared of fighters again look less invincible than he so often previously has.

The challenger caught Inoue with a right to the body in the sixth, and was then punished via a right-left to the body and a right to the head. He was also, inevitably, looking tired, and struggled to resist again getting backed up to the ropes by right hands.

While trapped there and taking further punishment, Cardenas swung desperately with a right hand and missed, but he watched the composed Inoue briefly back off before returning to attack him and again unleashing another attack. Another hurtful right to the head and left to the body followed from Inoue; when a left to the chin followed as Cardenas struggled to defend himself, it became tempting to question whether Taylor would intervene.

The ending, inevitably, relatively swiftly followed. Again under assault in the seventh round from Inoue’s still-masterful technique, Cardenas was being held up by the ropes and attacked by a fighter no longer giving a moment’s thought to what might be thrown in exchange. Cardenas briefly attempted to fight back but took successive lefts to the body and then the cleanest of right hands. Inoue followed up again with another series of rights that finally sent Cardenas down.

If he quickly returned to his feet and again desperately swung to defend himself the ending was even closer. Another concussive right hand sent Cardenas back towards his own corner in the eighth round, and the champion landed another hurtful barrage of punches concluded by a final right uppercut that forced Taylor to rescue the brave challenger 45 seconds in.

Their fight will prove one of those rare occasions after which both fighters’ reputations will be enhanced dramatically. Inoue will go on to fight Akhmadaliev and continue to vie with Oleksandr Usyk and Terence Crawford to be seen as the world’s finest fighter. He will also return to fighting in Japan with even further respect from the estimated 8,000 in attendance, and with an increased audience determined to watch more of his entertaining fights from afar.

Cardenas – the Mexican-American matched with the Japanese icon partly on account of his heritage – will also receive further high-profile opportunities. He was ultimately outclassed and outgunned, but succeeded in forcing Inoue into his most entertaining fight since the endlessly memorable first with Nonito Donaire.