Boxing: 'Monster' Inoue TKOs Cardenas to retain 4 super bantam belts

The Mainichi

05-05-2025

LAS VEGAS (Kyodo) -- Japanese boxing star Naoya Inoue overcame a gutsy performance by American Ramon Cardenas to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship Sunday via an eighth-round technical knockout.
The four-division world champion known as "Monster" improved to 30-0 with 27 KOs after bouncing back from an early knockdown at the hands of World Boxing Association No. 1 challenger Cardenas at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Cardenas stunned Inoue and energized the crowd by landing a left hook that sent the overwhelming favorite to the canvas at the end of the second round.
The knockdown appeared to wake up the champion, who stepped up his attack from the following round. Inoue dealt out a punishing sixth round and floored Cardenas in the seventh.
"I was very surprised (by the knockdown) but managed to stay calm and regroup," the 32-year-old Inoue said. "I made sure I never received a similar shot from the third onward."
Inoue went in for the kill from the start of the eighth, sending Cardenas reeling backward to his own corner with a crushing right before delivering a barrage culminating in a right uppercut.
With the challenger on the ropes and seemingly unable to find a way out, referee Thomas Taylor stopped the fight 45 seconds into the round.
"He (Cardenas) was a very tough opponent," Inoue said. "There was a huge gap in odds, but he came out desperately wanting to beat me and it really made me think boxing isn't that easy."
Cardenas, who dropped to 26-2 with 14 wins by knockout, said it was not the power but the "ruthlessness" of the champion, who delivered "six, seven, eight punches at a time," that separated the two.
"I knew he was going to come back stronger (after the knockdown)," Cardenas said.
The victory marked a triumphant return to the United States for Inoue, whose previous fight in the country was in June 2021, when he knocked out Michael Dasmarinas of the Philippines in the third round to defend his IBF and WBA bantamweight belts in Las Vegas.
"I really felt there were lots of fans who've been craving for this," Inoue said. "I'd like to fight again in America if they enjoyed it."
Inoue, who has revealed plans to eventually conquer a fifth weight class by moving up to featherweight, confirmed after the match that his next fight would be against WBA interim super bantamweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev of Uzbekistan in Japan in September.