Inoue vs Donaire 2 LIVE!
Naoya Inoue produced a ruthless early knockout to win his bantamweight unification showdown with Nonito Donaire in Saitama on Tuesday.
Donaire was sent crashing to the canvas right at the end of the opening exchanges, failing to recover and being subjected to a furious and emphatic onslaught as another brutal knockdown forced a premature end to the hotly-anticipated main event with 1:24 still to go in round two.
It was a vicious one-sided beatdown in stark contrast to the first fight between these legendary multi-weight world champions in November 2019, which was an absorbing, back-and-forth classic and ‘Fight of the Year’ winner that went the distance.
Pound-for-pound great Inoue, still unbeaten as he moves to 23-0 with 20 knockouts, adds the WBC belt to his WBA, IBF and The Ring titles, with only John Riel Casimero’s WBO gold now standing between him and undisputed supremacy over the 118lbs division.
Younger brother Takuma also won on Tuesday’s card, successfully defending his WBO Asia Pacific super-bantamweight belt and picking up the Japanese national title with a unanimous decision win over Gakuya Furuhashi.
There was also an emphatic stoppage in the co-main event of the night as Andy Hiraoka beat Shun Akaiwa to defend his Japanese super-lightweight strap.
Boxing schedule and results
Naoya Inoue bt Nonito Donaire
Andy Hiraoka bt Shun Akaiwa
Takuma Inoue bt Gakuya Furuhashi
