Opinions and Observations: Inoue, Benavidez

Two fights ago, Junto Nakatani faced fellow bantamweight champ Ryosuke Nishida. For that matchup, Nakatani and his trainer Rudy Hernandez employed a daring strategy: take Nishida out early. Nakatani went full throttle from the opening bell, attacking relentlessly and at times, even recklessly. The combat was ferocious, yet Nakatani's game plan worked. Nishida didn't make it to the second half of the fight. 

Flash forward a year later. Now Nakatani was fighting the great Naoya Inoue for undisputed status one division up at junior featherweight. And instead of attacking Inoue in the early rounds, Nakatani went the opposite route; he would attempt to neutralize the action. Using his long right arm, he would extend it, either to jab or to occupy the space between the two fighters. That simple maneuver was enough to keep Inoue on the outside. From that perspective, Nakatani did achieve a tactical victory.  

Although Nakatani was successful in turning down the temperature of the fight, he neglected a vital element of professional boxing: winning rounds. It's all good to reduce the number of landed blows from a noted knockout artist, but Nakatani offered so little in the early rounds besides his jab. While Inoue didn't dominate the first half of the fight, he would land two or three impressive power punches a round, usually right hands, which would be enough to take 10-9s on the scorecards. 

Inoue (left) and Nakatani (right) during and exchange
Photo courtesy of Lemino Boxing

After the sixth, Hernandez told Nakatani that he needed to let his hands go more. But Hernandez used more of a conversational tone instead of issuing a desperate plea. The one change that Nakatani made was to stop jabbing. Consequently, Inoue welcomed the additional room to operate and proceeded to win the seventh and eighth. 

Only in the ninth round did Nakatani start to show the offensive firepower that had excited so many about this matchup. During the next two rounds he blasted Inoue with straight lefts, right hooks and uppercuts. There were moments during these rounds where Inoue voluntarily backed up and disengaged. For a brief spell The Monster had been defanged. 

A clash of heads toward the end of the 10th did play a role in changing the trajectory of the fight; Nakatani received a sizeable cut from the headbutt near his right eye and it clearly bothered him throughout the rest of the bout. 

However, let's also acknowledge what separates the truly best from the merely excellent. Inoue found another gear. Similar to Usyk in the Joshua fights or Crawford after dropping a number of rounds against Shawn Porter. The elites essentially said, no more. They drew a line in the sand. They refused to give into the opponent's momentum. 

Right after having his worst round of the fight, the 10th, Inoue started the 11th in attack mode and went after Nakatani. He proceeded to have the best round that either fighter would have in the entire match. He crushed Nakatani with power punches, including blistering uppercuts with each hand. Now Nakatani was the one who was in retreat. 

Inoue's stand in the 11th carried over to the 12th and that was enough for him to take the fight. He won the bout with scores of 116-112 x 2 and 115-113 (I also had him winning 116-112). The final two rounds sealed the win for Inoue. 

Ultimately, the fight had two phases, a technical boxing display (the first six rounds) and a more open power punching period (the final six rounds). In each phase of the fight, I thought that Inoue had won four rounds of the six. Inoue, even at 33, showed that he had more to offer than his younger, undefeated opponent.  

Now it must be said that Inoue didn't dominate the action. He was a little bit better through most of the first half of the fight and his final stand won him the back half, but he also needed that stand because things were going poorly for him in rounds nine and ten. However, the great ones find a way. They have an extra level. 

I wonder if Hernandez and Nakatani will regret the overly cautious start. Clearly, they didn't want a firefight to break out too early in the fight, but what if Hernandez went to Nakatani after the third or fourth round instead? What if Hernandez showed a little more urgency in the corner? Before the seventh was too late to flip the switch in my opinion. Nakatani would have needed to take five of the final six rounds of the fight to ensure that he'd win it on the cards, and that's too tall of an order against a fighter of Inoue's talent.

For the second Nakatani fight in a row, I believe that Rudy Hernandez, who is often a spectacular cornerman, got outmaneuvered. In his last fight, Nakatani and Hernadez couldn't stop Sebastian Hernandez's relentless pressure and inside fighting in the second half of their bout. Nakatani ultimately escaped with a win in one of his least convincing performances. And on Saturday, I don't think that Hernandez had a good sense of how the fight was going vis-a-vis the judges' scorecards. He left Nakatani with too little margin for error. 

The truly best cornermen have an ability to understand the scoring of a fight in real time, with dispassion. Trading in their trainer's hat for a judge's one, they realize when their fighter is down (or could be down) and recalibrate accordingly. If Hernandez truly understood the optics of Saturday's fight, he would have junked Game Plan #1 sooner and been far more assertive in the corner. But like the previous Nakatani fight, the adjustments weren't there fast enough.  

Shingo Inoue, Naoya's father and trainer, won almost everyone's trainer of the year award in 2025. His other fighting son, Takuma, also retained his bantamweight title on Saturday's undercard. Against Nakatani, Shingo had a very good night. He made sure that Naoya wouldn't fall into traps or force the action. When the fight was slow, Naoya didn't get reckless, a major change from a few years ago. In addition, Naoya was switched on all fight and was able to deliver what was required during each phase of the fight.

And that brings up another great separator between the greats and the very good. They understand what tools, techniques and strategies can work in a given context during the fight. You didn't see Inoue throw any uppercuts in the technical portion of the bout, because those opportunities weren't available, and he saw no reason to force it. But after Nakatani was softened up some, suddenly the shot could be deployed. And despite hardly throwing it for the first ten rounds of the fight, when Inoue went to his uppercuts, he was able to land them with maximum ferocity and devastating impact. 

With over a decade of championship-level experience spanning four weight classes, Inoue is no longer at his physical prime. His power isn't the same at 122 lbs. that it was at the smaller weights, and Saturday was the first time that he looked labored at points during a 12-round fight. Yet, he was still the one with his hand raised at the end of the fight, and doing so against a fellow pound-for-pound entrant. 

Despite his Monster moniker, it's worth remembering that even as the knockouts have stopped (and power is not the last thing to go in boxing; it goes), Inoue has still found a way. In his last three fights he has decisioned three top-ten contenders at 122 lbs., with his last one, Nakatani, an undefeated multi-divisional champ who had youth and size advantages. The clock may be ticking on Inoue's undefeated record, but let's not forget what a career it's been. On Saturday, Inoue didn't just beat Nakatani, but he beat back Father Time too. To both, he said, not yet.  

***

Gilberto "Zurdo" Ramirez's initial strategy against David Benavidez was understandable. After all, it was Ramirez who was the cruiserweight champion and Benavidez was the fighter coming up more than 20 pounds to challenge for his title. Ramirez thought that he could impose himself on Benevidez, that his physicality and body shots would wear the supposedly smaller man down. But by the end of the second round, it was clear that Benavidez had the clear edge in hand speed and, surprisingly, power. 

The pay per view broadcast was in Ramirez's corner after every round. And during each look-in, Ramirez's trainer, Julian Chua, emphasized that Ramirez needed to stay behind his jab, use angles and not engage in a mano-a-mano war. 

But Ramirez was determined to win an attritional battle on the inside. And to be fair to him, there were moments where he did well, landing right hooks up top, jabs and straight lefts downstairs, and three- and four-punch combinations. However, there were points in every round except the fifth, where he was getting lit up by Benavidez's own combinations. And these weren't four- or five-punch shoeshines; these combos included menacing power hooks thrown with maximum force. They dazzled the crowd and also blew up both of Ramirez's eyes.

Benavidez (left) catching Ramirez with a left hook
Photo courtesy of Cris Esquada/Golden Boy

Ramirez and Benavidez had been frequent sparring partners over the years and perhaps that familiarity led Zurdo to believe that he could take Benavidez's best shots. But it's worth remembering that fighters spar with much larger gloves, which can do a lot to take the sting out of punches. 

Benavidez dropped Ramirez twice in the fight, in the fourth and the sixth. In both cases Ramirez took a knee after being badly hurt by multi-punch combinations. He couldn't handle the onslaught of punches. In the sixth, after dropping to the canvas for the second time, he spit out his mouthpiece and indicated to the referee that he didn't want to continue. 

Benavidez's victory was a comprehensive beatdown and a display of his mastery at mid-range and in close quarters. There are few fighters who can match Benavidez in a pocket war, which Zurdo found out the hard way. 

Throughout most of his career, Benavidez has been masquerading as a smaller-weight fighter. I have no idea how he made 168 as many times as he did. And in truth, he lost a belt by missing weight. Even at light heavyweight I didn't think that his stamina looked great over 12 rounds against Gvozdyk and Morrell, despite winning comfortably on the scorecards. 

But at cruiserweight I think that we finally saw Benavidez in full flow, without worrying about gassing or punching himself out. He was throwing seven- or eight-punch combinations not just once or twice in the fight, but several times each round. This was a fighter who now fully believed in his conditioning. 

Picking the correct weight class in boxing is often more of an art than a science. And sometimes the answer can be more political than you think. A promoter might have better potential opponents or a path to a title at a given weight class, but not at a neighboring one. A fighter also may not understand his body or how to train properly. Maybe his team is also finding out by trial and error as it goes. 

If I were handling Benavidez's career. I'd never have him drop below cruiserweight again. Why would I want to see a fighter who looked like one of the absolute best talents in boxing lose 20 pounds or more at this phase of his career? Benavidez has two cruiserweight belts, the PBC's full support, and a legitimate fan base. Why not demand that Beterbiev, who has been making 175 since Calvin Coolidge was President, fight him at cruiserweight? Why not do the same for Bivol? Why should Bivol's belts mean more than Benavidez's?  

Benevidez is now at the point of his career where he can be a shot-caller. If people want money fights, now they may look to him where in the past there were just enough convenient reasons to avoid him. 

Benavidez is a star and supremely talented. It's now his time in boxing, where he can become one of the faces of the sport. Let's see who will challenge him at 200 lbs. Who wants to cement a legacy? Will it be Opetaia? Bivol? Beterbiev? Who will be brave? Let's see who will stand up and be counted.   

Adam Abramowitz is the founder and head writer of saturdaynightboxing.com. 

He's a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Panel, the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Email: saturdaynightboxing@hotmail.com

snboxing on twitter. SN Boxing on Facebook 

Opinions and Observations: Nakatani-Hernandez

Everything looked so easy for Junto Nakatani in the early rounds against Sebastian Hernandez. Unloading with straight lefts, overhand lefts, and uppercuts with both hands, Nakatani displayed his myriad offensive gifts, the reasons why he had won world titles at multiple weight classes and was safely ensconced on pound-for-pound lists. 

But a funny thing happened on the way to Nakatani making an emphatic statement for his 122-lb. debut: Hernandez refused to comply. Despite getting hit with the kitchen sink in the first few rounds, Hernandez was undeterred. He kept marching forward, determined to get inside on Nakatani. 

By the second half of the fight Hernandez was the one in control. The bout turned into a battle of close combat and in that distance, Hernandez was superior. His left hooks were blistering, causing significant damage to Nakatani's right eye. In addition, he was much more fluid with combinations at short range. While Nakatani was landing the single left uppercut or straight left, Hernandez was charging in behind threes and fours. 

Hernandez (left) and Nakatani went to war
Photo courtesy of Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing

In the tenth, Nakatani wisely got on his bike and had a better round by circling and turning Hernandez, but he didn't continue to apply those tactics, and Hernandez resumed his relentless assault in the final two rounds.  

The final scores had Nakatani winning by 115-113 x 2 and a laughably incompetent 118-110. I scored the fight a draw, 114-114. In my opinion the two 115-113 scores were plausible cards. 

Although Hernandez arrived in Saudi Arabia with little fanfare, he was not anonymous to those who have been following the junior featherweight division. He entered the fight ranked on Ring Magazine's top-ten list at 122 lbs. and his efforts against Nakatani further confirmed his talent as a top junior featherweight. (Disclaimer: I am a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Panel.)

Perhaps even more impressive than Hernandez's technical skills at close range were his will, conditioning, and chin. Make no mistake; Hernandez was getting blown out early in the fight, where the commentators had to strain to find a successful punch that he landed. But he kept going, believing in himself and his attributes as a fighter. With an insane work rate in the second half of the fight, he bent the flashier Nakatani to his will and forced an attritional war upon him. He was the one who will exit the fight having gained confidence and a boatload of new fans. 

Even during Nakatani's early success in the fight, I was concerned by aspects of his performance. Nakatani was throwing a bullshit jab all fight. He wasn't trying to land the punch and threw it with so little belief. It's the type of ineffectual jab that a pressure fighter can easily walk through. In addition, where was Nakatani's right hook? He could have used that punch as a lead in close quarters or as part of a combination after the straight left or left uppercut, but he hardly threw it all fight, and Hernadez was open to be hit with that punch. 

But what was most troubling to me was how Nakatani and his trainer Rudy Hernandez let the fight get away from them. I think it was the tenth round where I saw Nakatani clinch for the first time and to me that highlighted a central flaw with his performance: He could not slow the fight down. 

There was hardly any clinching, very little circling and few periods of effective jabbing. Nakatani was the better athlete and the one who could utilize more advanced angles, yet there he was slugging it out round after round. He had more weapons in his arsenal but didn't use them. Was it overconfidence in his punching power and early success? A lack of confidence in clinching (where he didn't look fluid when he tried it)? Bad corner instructions? None of those answers are going to be positive when Nakatani and Rudy Hernandez review the fight. 

As has been discussed for many months, this bout was supposed to set up a super fight with Naoya Inoue next year (Inoue won a wide decision over Alan Picasso on the card). Although Inoue and Hernandez fight nothing alike, Nakatani and Rudy Hernadez's lack of adjustments on Saturday was concerning. Sebastian Hernandez was able to turn the tide of the fight and Nakatani didn't come up with a suitable Plan B. 

Meanwhile, it's clear from the aftermath of Inoue's recent wars with Nary and Cardenas that he has now adopted a more conservative Plan B as his base fighting style. He's dominated two fighters after the style switch. Now it's time for Nakatani and Rudy Hernandez to figure out what went wrong against Sebastian Hernandez and make their needed adjustments. 

I still think that Nakatani's length, punch variety and Inoue's low right hand will provide Nakatani with plenty of opportunities to be competitive in that matchup. But Inoue still hasn't had a close fight on the scorecards. He's been knocked down but has regathered himself to stop those opponents. He's never been outboxed for sustained stretches of a fight like Nakatani was against Hernandez. 

As an early believer in Nakatani's talent, I expected him to become among the best fighters in the sport. However, to ascend to that top rung in boxing, the one where Inoue finds himself, more will be required. Nakatani didn't handle duress well against Hernandez. He made no significant adjustments and was fortunate to have won the fight. Nakatani will now have to show that he has the elite ring intelligence to match his technical skills. That is his last hurdle, and after his performance against Hernadez, it remains an open question if he can get to the mountaintop. 

Adam Abramowitz is the founder and head writer of saturdaynightboxing.com. 

He's a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Panel, the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, and the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Email: saturdaynightboxing@hotmail.com

snboxing on twitter. SN Boxing on Facebook 

Opinions and Observations: Lomachenko-Linares

The truly great separate themselves in boxing by producing moments of brilliance. Whether strategic, tactical, technical or physical, the elite fighters have an extra attribute that mere mortals are unable to conjure. It's a form of genius that's improvisational, with only those who reside in the upper echelon willing to attempt, let alone execute.

In the 10th round of Saturday's thrilling fight between Vasiliy Lomachenko and Jorge Linares, Lomachenko dropped a perfect rear-hand left hook in the middle of a combination that ended the match. Lomachenko curled the shot just under Linares's outstretched right arm and the punch landed squarely on his liver. Linares beat the count, but was in no condition to continue. 

Going back to basics for a second, so few fighters even throw a rear hook. It's a shot that can be easily countered. Many trainers ban that punch from young fighters' repertoires because it can leave them so vulnerable to incoming fire. But the rear hook isn't a proscribed punch in boxing rules. If a fighter can throw it and get away with it, then so be it; but a boxer should use it at his own peril.

During that combination in the 10th, Lomachenko peppered Linares with all sorts of nasty stuff to the head – right hooks, right uppercuts, straight lefts. Linares kept raising his guard higher and higher attempting to fend off Lomachenko's attack. It was at that moment where Lomachenko threw the rear hook – a shot that he hadn't thrown at any point earlier in the fight – and Linares had no defense for it. 

Courtesy of Mikey Williams/Top Rank

Lomachenko needed to summon that moment of brilliance, because he was in a dogfight. Going into the 10th round, the scores were even. Linares was up two on one card, down two on another and tied on the third (I had Linares up two). In the sixth round, Linares knocked down Lomachenko with a perfect counter right hand – the first time Lomachenko had been dropped in the pros. And at various points in the fight, Linares was able to use his reach and accurate punching to land jabs and right hands with surprising frequency. 

For all of Lomachenko's supreme gifts, and they are supreme, he was getting hit a lot. Clearly Linares's physical attributes, technical skills and smart game plan played a role in this, but there was also a degree of vanity in Lomachenko's performance. He fought like he didn't believe that Linares could hurt him. But after Vasiliy threw a lazy jab in the sixth, Linares countered with that pinpoint right which sent Lomachenko to the canvas. It was a wakeup call for Lomachenko; even the greats can get burned by making a mistake. 

Lomachenko beat a terrific version of Linares. In Linares's recent lightweight title defenses, he combined moments of sublime offense with periods of apathy. He would dominate for three rounds and then let a lesser talent back into the fight. He seemed to lack the drive to put together a consistent performance. But Saturday's Linares was switched on. Starting off brightly in the first two rounds with crisp punching and purposeful movement, he immediately indicated to Lomachenko that he wasn't intimidated; he believed that he could win. 

And after Lomachenko put together excellent rounds in the third, fourth and fifth, Linares didn't fold or succumb to Vasiliy's relentless pressure. He steadied himself and landed that fantastic counter right in the sixth, which buoyed he spirits. He followed that up with a terrific seventh round. 

Much was made prior to the fight that Linares wouldn't be working with his regular trainer, Ismael Salas, who had a pre-existing arrangement to train David Haye for his rematch against Tony Bellew. Linares and Salas had forged a winning partnership and Linares had frequently credited his trainer for his recent revival in the lightweight division. However, Rudy Hernandez and the rest of Linares's team ably filled Salas's void. Hernandez’s corner instructions were excellent: keep punches short, don't over-commit and work off of the jab whenever possible. And Hernandez kept emphasizing the jab, even when Lomachenko was having periods of sustained success. It's often difficult for an orthodox fighter to jab effectively against a southpaw, let alone one as athletically gifted as Lomachenko is, but Hernandez was committed to the shot.  

The jab kept Lomachenko from coming in as much as he would have liked. Sure, he had periods of success at close range, but he didn't have a consistent presence there; Linares's jab and outside punching played a significant role in that. 

Linares followed a solid game plan. His desire was there. He was fighting in the upper bounds of his abilities, but when the dust settled, he faced a talent who simply could do more than he could. Linares is a dynamic offensive talent and a capable, three-division world champion. But he would never dream of throwing the fight-ending rear hook that Lomachenko unfurled. And that gap in creativity and execution is why Lomachenko has the belt today. There is a genius that Lomachenko possesses that Linares lacks. I can't ever remember seeing a similar combination to the one that Lomachenko threw on Saturday, and I'm sure that Linares wouldn't even conceive of it offensively, let along think about trying to defend it.  

Lomachenko-Linares is an example of boxing at its finest. Featuring sublime technical skills, athleticism, momentum shifts, power punches, adjustments and indelible moments, the fight will be remembered as one of the defining contests of 2018. It's the rare bout where both fighters are elevated in its aftermath.

Linares, who had won a number of vacant titles in his career and beat a lot of "B" guys, went toe-to-toe with perhaps the best active fighter on the planet. And Lomachenko had to dig down, overcome adversity and create a moment of improvisation brilliance to secure the win. 

On a final thought regarding Lomachenko, it's worth remembering that he had a 14-lb. functional weight disadvantage on fight night. Facing essentially a junior middleweight on Saturday, Lomachenko, the much smaller fighter, was the one who did more damage on a punch-by-punch basis; his shots had more of an effect. Lomachenko has good power, but he's not one of the harder hitters in the sport. He creates havoc with movement, timing, angles, accuracy, flawless technique, creative combinations and an indefatigable spirit. Lomachenko isn't really a lightweight, yet he was carving up perhaps the best fighter in the division. 

After the fight Lomachenko referred to being knocked down in the sixth as a teachable lesson, and I think that's the correct way to look at it. Lomachenko did not put together a flawless performance on Saturday. He got hit a lot, certainly more than he should have. Linares's periodic success forced Lomachenko to make the type of mistake that often occurs with Vasiliy's opponents, but here the master succumbed to a fatigue-induced error. At the top level of the sport, fighters are punished for pushing out lazy jabs. And if one stands in front of a good opponent too often, eventually the opponent will be able to figure out something that can work.

From what I know of Lomachenko, he's not plagued by self-satisfaction. He was victorious, but that won't be enough for him. He wants to get better...to dominate! I'm sure that he and his father will get back to the gym in short order to perfect some of their mistakes from Saturday. That improvisational moment of brilliance won him the fight, but future opponents will remember that he hit the deck. They might be just a little less intimidated when entering the ring in the future, and Lomachenko knows that. I doubt that leaves a positive aftertaste.  

Adam Abramowitz is the founder and head writer of saturdaynightboxing.com. 

He's a member of Ring Magazine's Ring Ratings Panel and a Board Member for the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board. 

Email: saturdaynightboxing@hotmail.com.
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