The Path to Uncontested World Champion
It was when Inoue started high school that the world began to learn of his abilities. Smashing through the competition in a string of unbroken victories in every Japanese tournament, as a high school senior Inoue was chosen to represent Japan in the adult (senior) division of the pinnacle of the amateur sport, the AIBA World Boxing Championships, held in 2011 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Inoue debuted as a professional boxer at the age of 18 with the nickname “The Monster.” After his fourth bout he was a Japanese champion, after his fifth bout he was an Asia-Pacific champion, and after his sixth bout he had won a world title—a record for a Japanese boxer. Inoue went onto score consecutive victories, winning titles in two, and then three, different weight divisions in record time, a feat that earned him a reputation as Japan’s best boxer ever.
Now 26, Inoue is currently competing in the World Boxing Super Series. The WBSS tournament aims to brings together champions from each of the four major belt accreditation organizations (the World Boxing Association, World Boxing Council, International Boxing Federation, and World Boxing Organization) in order to determine the uncontested world champion. Something of a boxing version of the soccer world cup, the WBSS enjoys popularity internationally, and is especially popular with Japanese fans.
Over 50 years ago, Japan enjoyed a golden age of boxing. With the subsequent emergence of new professional wrestling codes and the diversification of entertainment, however, boxing has gradually declined in popularity, and the recent proliferation of sanctioning bodies has resulted in more and more boxers being declared champions, thereby diluting the prominence of individual champs. Compounded by the financial woes of the broadcasters that buy the rights to broadcast tournaments, the outlook for the boxing industry had been dim. However, Inoue and the WBSS appear to have shaken up the stagnant world of boxing. Inoue, too, hopes to see the WBSS become a shot in the arm for boxing in Japan.
“All I can do is fight my best for my fans. With each successive knockout win, the expectations on me rise, so the pressure is something else. However, if someone asks me if I feel the heat, I just tell them that I thrive on pressure,” jokes Inoue.
Inoue Naoya smiles for fans upon his victorious return to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport from the WBSS semifinals on May 21, 2019. (© Jiji) In the WBSS bantamweight tournament semifinal in May 2019, Inoue scored a technical knockout victory over Emmanuel Rodriguez of Puerto Rico in the second round, in 1 minute and 19 seconds. Inoue will now go onto the WBSS final, scheduled for November 7 at the Saitama Super Arena just north of Tokyo, to fight Nonito Donaire of the Philippines. We look forward to another breathtaking performance from “The Monster.”
(Originally published in English. Banner photo: Inoue Naoya, at left, fights Emmanuel Rodriguez in the WBSS Bantamweight Tournament semifinal at Glasgow, Scotland, on May 18, 2019. © Reuters/Aflo.)
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