This Saturday night streaming live on ESPN+ (Oct. 31, 7:30 pm ET), unified bantamweight titlist Naoya Inoue will make his highly-anticipated Top Rank debut, defending the WBA and IBF belts against Jason Moloney in the main event from Las Vegas.
The 27-year-old Inoue (19-0, 16 KO) is a boxing sensation of recent years, his legend growing in an almost mythical manner. This is an era where streaming and expanded coverage has made it far easier for boxing fans all over the world, and definitely in the United States, to keep up with international boxing. But Inoue’s popularity and reputation hasn’t just been a result of that expansion and ease of access, either, because he was building his name even before DAZN and ESPN+ got into the game and made for a huge change in how American fans in particular consume boxing.
Turning pro in 2012, Inoue won the Japanese junior flyweight title against veteran Ryoichi Taguchi — a good fighter — in his fourth pro fight in 2013, and picked up the regional OPBF belt with a win over Jerson Mancio in his next bout. In his sixth pro fight, he went in with Adrian Hernandez for the WBC 108-pound title, and ran Hernandez over in six rounds.
After a single title defense in 2014, Inoue skipped right over the flyweight division to take what was thought to be a significant risk, jumping all the way up to 115 to fight veteran Omar Narvaez for the WBO junior bantamweight belt. Narvaez, who was 43-1-2 coming into that bout, had only ever lost to Nonito Donaire, and that was at bantamweight, a fight where Narvaez didn’t engage at all and stunk out the joint in a 2011 HBO main event.
But the Argentine southpaw got no chance to stink it out with Inoue, as the rising Japanese star blasted him out in the second round. After seven successful title defenses at 115 pounds, Inoue jumped up to bantamweight in May 2018, winning a secondary WBA belt from Jamie McDonnell via first round stoppage.
Early stoppages were to become routine for Inoue. Starting with Yoan Boyeaux in 2017, Inoue didn’t go past the third round for four straight fights, and he didn’t go past the sixth round in seven straight from 2016-19. He wasn’t just beating guys, he was demolishing them, earning the nickname “Monster” and making his move onto pound-for-pound lists as a three-division champion still in his mid-20s.
He also entered the World Boxing Super Series tournament in 2018, and mowed down Juan Carlos Payano and Emmanuel Rodriguez — again, these are good fighters — in the first and second round, respectively. He’d made his UK debut with the win over Rodriguez, that fight taking place in Glasgow, but got to go back to Japan for the tournament final against Nonito Donaire in Nov. 2019.
Donaire had his own interesting story. A former P4P guy himself, he’d faded by climbing a bit too high in weight, going all the way up to 126 pounds after winning his first world title at 112. But he’d come back down to 118 for the tournament, which was seen as a big risk, and his first two fights were sort of fluky. He beat Ryan Burnett in what was shaping up to be an interesting fight, but Burnett was stopped via back after in the fourth round, an unfortunate ending. In the semifinal round, Donaire beat over-matched substitute opponent Stephon Young after Zolani Tete pulled out of the fight during fight week.
There was fear from many going into the Inoue-Donaire fight that Inoue would simply demolish Nonito, and put a proud, well-liked, aging star fighter out to pasture in unceremonious fashion. That’s what our staff unanimously expected going into the fight, in fact, and we were not alone.
“I think this winds up a bit of a battering, as a younger, faster fighter lays waste to the breadbasket of a proud veteran champion,” I wrote at the time. “Inoue blows him away within the first third of the fight,” Patrick L. Stumberg predicted, and Lewis Watson added, “I’m expecting a big, brutal statement victory from Inoue.”
Instead, we got the 2019 Fight of the Year, as Donaire defied basically all expectations other than his own and hung tough for a full 12 rounds with Inoue, giving future opponents some things to scout in the process. Inoue won, and clearly deserved the win, but he took a beating in that fight, too. It wasn’t a let-down; it was a fight so great that it couldn’t possibly be one. It was a wonderful surprise, a great veteran fighter showing he still had something against a great young fighter. If you still haven’t seen it, watch the whole fight here.
One person who has watched Inoue-Donaire repeatedly looking for things to cop from Donaire’s plan is Jason Moloney, the 29-year-old Aussie who will try for a second time to win his first world title. Inoue-Moloney would have happened back in 2019 had Moloney beaten Emmanuel Rodriguez in the opening round of the WBSS tournament, but Rodriguez hung on and edged a split decision despite a valiant attempt from Moloney to rally after a slow start.
Moloney (21-1, 18 KO) is another good fighter. He’s top 10 in the division, he’s a legitimate contender, and he’s a massive underdog here, because “good fighters” are the guys Inoue has trucked for basically his entire career.
Moloney is naturally a bit thicker in the body than Inoue, as Moloney turned pro at 122 pounds before settling at 118 for serious fights, while Inoue of course started at 108 and has worked his way up. Inoue is actually the same listed height with a couple inches of reach on Moloney, but Moloney is definitely the more sturdily built bantamweight when you look at them.
Moloney was last in action on June 25 in Las Vegas, stopping Leonardo Baez after seven rounds. It was a good performance for the Aussie, but it would be ill-advised to say that prepares him for Inoue. Nothing that Moloney has done to date prepares him for Inoue. He’ll either be good enough to compete with Inoue or he won’t be, basically, but you can expect him to give it his very best effort. He’s a game fighter who isn’t coming just to collect a check.
