Inoue survives first career knockdown to beat Nery by KO

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Naoya Inoue survived the first knockdown of his career to stay undisputed super-bantamweight champion with a sixth-round knockout of Luis Nery in Tokyo.

Pound-for-pound king Inoue was floored for the first time as a professional in a shock opening round at the Tokyo Dome, Japan but climbed off the canvas to knock former two-weight world champion Nery down twice before ending the fight by KO just before the halfway point.

Inoue — known as 'The Monster' — stays undefeated with a perfect 27-0 record including 24 knockouts. Nery falls to 35-2 (27 KO).

FOLDED HIM.

GOOD NIGHT FROM THE SOLD OUT TOKYO DOME 👑🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/8J3fgl7api

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) May 6, 2024

The 31-year-old is considered one of the finest boxers in the world and is only the second male fighter in history — after American Terence Crawford — to be an undisputed champion at two weight divisions in the four-belt era. He became undisputed bantamweight champion in December 2022 following a technical knockout of Paul Butler.

He last fought in December — a 10th-round knockout win over Marlon Tapales — and started uncharacteristically slowly with a sharp left hook from Nery catching him flush and sending him down.

Betting underdog Nery, with only a sole defeat on his own record, could have been forgiven for dreaming of the upset but Inoue roared back in the second round and sent him tumbling with his own hard left hand.

Neither fighter appeared too hurt but with Inoue growing in confidence and even finding time to showboat, beckoning Nery to advance towards him, a second knockdown followed in the fifth.

The Mexican reached the safety of the bell but there was no saving him in the sixth as a savage right hand from Inoue sent him crashing through the ropes to end the contest.

(Philip Fong/AFP via Getty Images)