Hold Your Ballots: Naoya Inoue Makes Case for 2014 Fighter of the Year Next Week
Vote early and vote often, as the adage goes.
Most sports media outlets, however, might actually be taking that to heart.
As highly publicized names like Terence Crawford and Sergey Kovalev have their names engraved onto 2014 Fighter of the Year trophies before the year has even come to a close, a boxing prodigy from the opposite side of the globe, Naoya Inoue, prepares to prove himself a strong candidate next week in Japan.
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On December 30, "Monster" Inoue jumps up two weight classes to square off with perennial champion Omar Andres Narvaez for the WBO super flyweight title at the Metropolitan Gym in Tokyo, which is set to air on Fuji TV, headlining a stacked fight card that features two other world title bouts.
A win over Narvaez would give Inoue his second divisional title and third win of 2014.
Inoue, a master of every punch in the book at 21 years old, is a fundamentally sound box-fighter whose lead left hand is cultured much beyond his years. He hits to the head and body with a destructive upshot—a byproduct of a lifetime of exclusive training at the hands of his father Shingo, who just won the Eddie Townsend award, as reported by AsianBoxing.com on Sunday, which is given annually to the best trainer in Japan.
A professional of just seven fights, Monster can hardly be called a prospect. He's found success and triumph on a world-class level despite his inexperience.
In April, he won the WBC World Light Flyweight Championship by way of a flawless sixth-round TKO of hardened Mexican and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board's No. 1-rated light flyweight, Adrian Hernandez, which was as awe-inspiring as it was scary. Hernandez was a four-time defending champion who had lost just once at 108 pounds—to former titlist Kompayak Porpramook, whom Hernandez exacted violent revenge on in a rematch.
Inoue, still 20, made him quit in six rounds.
Following a thorough beating and knockdown in Round 6, Hernandez could only turn his back in consent to his new conqueror while the referee asked if he could continue.
The Monster had awakened, realizing his goal of becoming a world champion. The scary part is he did it in just six fights—the quickest Japanese to ever do so.
Next was a title defense against a third-rate fighter in Samartlek Kokietgym that served as the main undercard to Roman Gonzalez's dismantling of the world's premier flyweight, Akira Yaegashi, in early September.
Kokietgym, 17-4, was obviously no one to write home about, but Inoue wouldn't be the only Fighter of the Year nominee to trade fists with overmatched opposition. Sergey Kovalev's seemingly daunting "3-0" record features unheralded names like Blake Caparello and Cedric Agnew, and half of "Chocolatito" Gonzalez's bouts in 2014 could be described as tune-up fights (Juan Purisima and Juan Kantun).
Inoue took care of business, nonetheless. Toying with his opponent for the duration of the bout, he mixed up a venomous body attack and a jab that looked straight out of a video game to take home another TKO in Round 11, improving his record to 7-0.
His career may just be getting started, but his time at light flyweight was over. "I stank," Inoue told reporters following the fight, per Yahoo Sports. "I struggled to make weight and to be honest it's a relief to have won."
A short jump to flyweight seemed only natural, but Inoue and his team were unable to secure a title fight in the loaded 112-pound weight class before the end of the year. So he goes up to 118 pounds to take on the very best super flyweight in the world.
Rated No. 1 by both TBRB and The Ring, Omar Narvaez, 39, is a peculiar stylist who operates with gritty defensive tactics and timely counterpunching. He seems to move in slow motion sometimes, but his opponents still have trouble tagging him cleanly.
He's reigned over the super flyweight division since May 2010 when he outslugged Everth Briceno for the WBO strap.
The Argentine champion has proceeded to make 11 consecutive title defenses and holds an astonishing record of 28-1-1 in world title fights, dating back to his time at flyweight. He's a tank of a fighter who has made a habit of outlasting younger challengers. It's going to take a special fighter to beat him.
Inoue, in possession of crippling power in both hands, seems to fit the bill. He's also the first fighter outside of Nonito Donaire to drag Narvaez out of Argentina, where's he's undefeated, since 2008.
In victory, he'll be the only man this year to claim two world titles in two separate weight classes. Jumping up two divisions is a weight-climbing exploit that, as Boxing News mentioned, hasn't been mirrored since Shane Mosley skipped over junior lightweight to challenge Oscar De La Hoya for the WBC welterweight belt way back in the year 2000.
The win would give the Japanese marvel just as many, if not more, notable victories for 2014 as any other likely Fighter of the Year candidate: Kovalev (Bernard Hopkins), Miguel Cotto (Sergio Martinez), Roman Gonzalez (Yaegashi and Rocky Fuentes), Floyd Mayweather (Marcos Maidana twice) and Manny Pacquiao (Timothy Bradley and Chris Algieri).
The 108- and 115-pound ranks don't admittedly compare highly to some of the stronger crops of fighters in the world like flyweight and welterweight, but neither does the incredibly thin lightweight division that Terence Crawford ran over this year. And the same can be said about Gennady Golovkin's 160-pound brethren.
Inoue's case for Fighter of the Year is just as strong as that of any of these fine fighters if he manages to snatch away Narvaez's title next week.
So save your vote. 2014 isn't over just yet.
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