tape story
Here’s a look at how Inoue and Nelly develop ahead of tonight’s main event. Both men are 5 feet 5 inches tall, but Inoue brings a 2.5 inch reach advantage to the ring. At yesterday’s official weigh-in, each came comfortably under the junior featherweight limit of 122 pounds.
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Hello and welcome to the Tokyo Dome for tonight’s blockbuster between Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue and Mexican challenger Luis Nery. A sellout crowd of about 55,000 spectators is expected as boxing returns to the Big Egg for the first time since February 1990, when a 42-1 underdog named James ‘Buster’ Douglas knocked out then-unbeaten heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in one of the great upsets in all of sport.
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Inoue (26-0, 23 KOs) is no Tyson. He’s even better, both on body of work and appetite for destruction. Since winning his first world championship at 108lbs in his sixth professional fight back in April 2014, the 31-year-old knockout merchant from Kanagawa prefecture has added belts at 115lbs, 118lbs and 122lbs while amassing a record of 21-0 in world title fights, including 19 coming inside the distance. Most recently, Inoue became the undisputed champion in two different weight classes over a 378-day span, knocking out Paul Butler in December 2022 to consolidate all four titles at bantamweight, then stopping the previously unbeaten Stephen Fulton in his junior featherweight debut and fully unifying the belts at 122lbs with a stoppage of Marlon Tapales in December. He is only the second Japanese man to win titles in four different weight classes after the great Kazuto Ioka.
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Naoya Inoue (left) and Mexico’s Luis Nery pose for a photo after Sunday’s official weigh-in in Tokyo.”,”caption”:”Japan’s Naoya Inoue Athlete (left), Mexico’s Luis Neri poses for a photo after the official weigh-in in Tokyo on Sunday. “,”credit”:”Photo: Kyodo News/Getty Images”}},{“_type”: “model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,” html”:”
Neri (35-1, 27 KOs) is a former two-division world champion, holding the WBC versions of the titles at both bantamweight and junior featherweight. The 29-year-old Tijuana southpaw lost a significant amount of weight and lost his bantamweight strap in a rematch with Shinsuke Yamanaka in 2018 and was suspended indefinitely in Japan, which was lifted earlier this year. After winning a decision over Aaron Alameda in 2020 to become a two-division champion, he suffered his first and only loss as a professional with a seventh-round knockout in a title unification bout against Brandon Figueroa the following year. Since then, he has steadily rebuilt with four straight wins, including a spectacular 11th round knockout of Azat Hovhannisyan last February in one of the best scraps of the year, but tonight… He will compete in the match as an underdog with 10 wins and 1 loss.
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Tonight’s main event will be preceded by three world title fights on the undercard, scheduled to begin at approximately 8:30pm local time (7:30am ET/12:30pm BST). is. There will be a lot more to come!
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The first matches and locations are already full.#Nelly Inoue pic.twitter.com/OX96dUs24a
— Evan Korner (@KornerMan44) May 6, 2024
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important events
One more preliminary match will take place before tonight’s main event Australian WBO bantamweight champion Jason ‘Mayhem’ Moloney will defend his belt against up-and-coming knockout artist and former kickboxing world champion Yoshiki Takei.
“I’ve always wanted to fight in Japan, and to be able to do it in front of a sold-out crowd at the Tokyo Dome in a show this big is a dream come true,” Maroney said this week. “I want to be known as an old world champion. I won the title in America, I defended the title in Canada, and now I’m going to go into enemy territory and defend the title in Japan.”
Takuma Inoue defeated Sho Ishida by unanimous decision to defend his WBA bantamweight title. Judges score: 118-109 (twice), 116-111.in crowd-pleasing scraps Filled with two-way action, Inoue overcame an uneven start with deft counter punches in the closing stages, including a knockdown by a batter in the first inning that left Ishida bleeding.
Naoya Inoue and Luis Neri have made good weight gains ahead of tonight’s main event. Each fell under the junior featherweight division limit of 55.3 kg (122 pounds). Sunday weigh-in: Inoue weighed 55.2kg (121¾lbs), 100g more, and Neri weighed 54.8kg (120.8lbs), 500g less.
Neri was stripped of his bantamweight world title in 2018 after failing to adjust his weight for a fight in Japan, and was given an indefinite suspension from fighting in Japan by the Japan Boxing Commission, which was lifted. It was only this year.
“I knew he was going to make weight,” Inoue said yesterday. “This is a big event and Nelly has probably put more into this match than any previous match in his career. I wasn’t worried.”
The main tenant of Tokyo Dome is the Yomiuri Giants of the Japanese professional baseball team.Yesterday, the Giants played a home game against the Hanshin Tigers, but organizers were given approximately 13 hours to modify the building for today’s boxing card. Here’s a fun time-lapse video showing the conversion.
13 hours after the previous day’s baseball game
The scene changes to a boxing venue.
Enjoy the time lapse.
Naoya Inoue vs Luis Neri
After this from 17:00
Exclusive live streaming scheduled on Prime Video
▶️https://t.co/pcBLUBv6m5#primeboxing pic.twitter.com/URR9ygNmc2
— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo_JP) May 6, 2024
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Ahead of tonight’s main event, there was a bit of drama early on in the penultimate qualifying match. Takuma Inoue (19 wins, 1 loss, 5 KOs), Naoya’s younger brother and WBA world bantamweight champion, Knocked down in the first round A 12-round match scheduled for former world title challenger Sho Ishida (34 wins, 3 losses, 17 KOs). Ishida’s perfect left jab sent Inoue to the canvas, but he easily beat the count and didn’t seem to be hurt.
Down Goes Takuma Inoue 😮 pic.twitter.com/Y3jIyJPHOu
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) May 6, 2024
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Seigo Yuri Akui just defended his WBA flyweight title by defeating Taku Kuwabara by unanimous decision. The three ringside judges scored the fight 117-111 (twice) and 118-110 in a rematch of the 2021 Japanese title fight, which Akui won by TKO in the 10th round.
In the second half of the exciting battle, Akui stepped on the accelerator. A promising start to a stacked TV undercard.
preamble
Hello, welcome to Tokyo Dome tonight. A blockbuster match between “Monster” Naoya Inoue and Mexican challenger Luis Neri. A sellout crowd of about 55,000 is expected as boxing returns to the Big Egg for the first time since February 1990, with a 42-1 underdog named James ‘Buster’ Douglas. be done. KO’d then undefeated heavyweight champion Mike Tyson In one of the great upsets in all sports.
Inoue (26-0, 23 KOs) is no Tyson. He is even better, both in the amount of work and the desire for destruction. Since winning his first world title at 108 pounds in his sixth professional fight in April 2014, the 31-year-old knockout merchant from Kanagawa Prefecture has won belts at 115 pounds, 118 pounds, and 122 pounds, and has competed in world title fights. He has amassed a record of 21 wins and 0 losses. , 19 of them have come far. Most recently, Inoue became the undisputed champion in two different weight classes in 378 days, solidified all four bantamweight titles with a KO of Paul Butler in December 2022, and even won a title in his junior featherweight debut. He stopped the undefeated Stephen Fulton and achieved complete unification. The belt was moved to 122 pounds after Marlon Tapares was suspended in December. He is the second Japanese male athlete to win titles in four different weight classes, after the great Kazuto Ioka.
Neri (35-1, 27 KOs) is a former two-division world champion, holding the WBC versions of the titles at both bantamweight and junior featherweight. The 29-year-old Tijuana southpaw lost a significant amount of weight and lost his bantamweight strap in a rematch with Shinsuke Yamanaka in 2018 and was suspended indefinitely in Japan, which was lifted earlier this year. After winning a decision over Aaron Alameda in 2020 to become a two-division champion, he suffered his first and only loss as a professional with a seventh-round knockout in a title unification bout against Brandon Figueroa the following year. Since then, he has steadily rebuilt with four straight wins, including a spectacular 11th round knockout of Azat Hovhannisyan last February in one of the best scraps of the year, but tonight… He will compete in the match as an underdog with 10 wins and 1 loss.
Tonight’s main event will be preceded by three world title fights on the undercard, scheduled to begin at approximately 8:30pm local time (7:30am ET/12:30pm BST). is. There will be a lot more to come!
The first matches and locations are already full.#Nelly Inoue pic.twitter.com/OX96dUs24a
— Evan Korner (@KornerMan44) May 6, 2024
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Brian will be here soon. In the meantime, Thomas Hauser reflects on Canelo Alvarez’s win over Jaime Munguia over the weekend.
