Inoue keeps fans in the seats and himself at the top of the pound-for-pound debate

By Norm Frauenheim

From weird to wow with a futile stop that was a waste of time, it was a weekend ride from gutter to great. 

For a forever fractured sport, there was reason for the usual abolitionists to say it’s dying, dead all over again. Then, there was a sudden resurrection of the stubborn resilience fundamental to a game always at its best when it’s getting up and off the deck.

Hate it or love it, it was all there in a postcard look at a journey that started in Times Square, not far from Madison Square Garden. Ryan Garcia lost and cried, Devin Haney was forgettable and Teofimo Lopez set himself up for a better day. Tank Davis, who is coming off a draw to Lamont Roach Jr, wasn’t there at all. 

They fought as though they would have been a lot more comfortable, if not more effective at the famed Garden, which — like author George Kimball’s original Four Kings (Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran) — emerged from it all with legacies very much intact. 

Then, there was Riyadh and super-middleweight Canelo Álvarez on the road to a September 12 date with former all-time welterweight great Terence Crawford at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium. 

It was perceived to be a tune-up, Maybe, that’s all it was. If so, it should have happened behind closed doors instead of in front of a live-stream audience. There are more exciting sparring sessions in neighborhood gyms than what we saw in Riyadh. Maybe, Canelo was careful not to reveal anything in his decision over William Scull. Or, maybe, there’s just not much left, other than his restored undisputed title. 

Whatever it was, it left a question, a lingering one. Perhaps a damaging one, too. Throughout 12 rounds, there were persistent signs of a decline apparent for a couple of years. From a promotional standpoint, a quick knockout of Scull would have worked. It would have dispelled doubts about Canelo. 

But now they persist, all them fueling skepticism about whether Canelo and Crawford can ever fulfill escalating expectations.

The good news is, yes, they can. 

The proof was delivered on the weekend’s final stop, Las Vegas, where Naoya Inoue and Ramon Cardenas delivered a performance that had it all. 

There was a Rocky moment followed by that up-and-off-the-deck display of grit, which was then complemented by a poised, thorough execution of skill. 

Inoue’s eighth-round stoppage of the unlikely Cardenas in the Sunday curtain-closer to a Cinco de Mayo triple-header was a timely answer to all of the doom and gloom left by the Times Square and Riyadh exhibitions.

There’s no telling whether it’ll be Fight of the Year. A lot of factors go into that one. From this corner, however, it’s already the Most Significant Fight in this year and maybe a few others. 

Above all, it’ll keep some fans in their proverbial seats, at least for awhile. If Inoue-Cardenas had resembled the prior two nights in any way, another erosion in the fan base might have followed.

Inoue-Cardenas reminded us why we watch. Why we’ve been watching. 

It started with Cardenas, a likable San Antonio junior-featherweight who didn’t have any illusions about why he was there. He was the designated opponent for Inoue, heavily favored in what looked like a pound-for-pound campaign stop in his first American appearance in about four years.

But Cardenas promised Inoue a fight. He also said he wasn’t there just to collect a paycheck, which looked to be the only motivation in Times Square and Riyadh.

Cardenas’ proof was delivered by a short left hand that dropped Inoue hard in the second round. Japan’s rising son was dazed — in as much trouble as he been in his otherwise brilliant career. Luis Nery dropped him early, but not with the same concussive power. 

There have been a lot of questions about Inoue in the days since last Sunday. Above all, the knockdown is a reason for Inoue, now 32, to abandon his plans to move to featherweight, up the scale from 122 pounds to 126. He’s been knocked down twice in his last four bouts.

“As long as I can make weight at this division, I will stay in this division,’’ he said after breaking down and stopping Cardenas at 45 seconds of the eighth.

The Cardenas’ knockdown has also been interpreted as a developing vulnerability in Inoue. Maybe.

Maybe, he gets knocked down again by Murodjon Akhmadaliev in Japan on Sept. 14 in another opportunity to make a pound-for-pound statement just a couple days after Canelo-Crawford. 

Thus far, however, a solid case can be made that Inoue is at best at the very moment he appears to be at his most vulnerable. 

Throughout his brilliant 30-0 career, most of the attention has been on Inoue’s comprehensive skillset. Fair enough. But he’s proving to be special because of the way he addresses adversity. 

He fought back from a fractured eye socket, suffered in the second round, in a 2019 unanimous decision over Nonito Donaire. He got up from a first-round knockdown and scored a sixth-round stoppage of Nery in May 2024. Don’t be surprised if gets up, all over again against the left-handed MJ.

Boxing is all about adversity. It’s about getting up. In the here and now, nobody does it better than Inoue, a little guy with unerring instincts and knowhow, both more than enough to keep fans in the seats and him at No. 1 in the pound-for-pound debate.