{"id":613157,"date":"2026-05-31T04:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T04:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/613157\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T04:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T04:55:08","slug":"us-world-champion-insists-naoya-inoue-is-not-a-hard-fight-i-know-how-to-beat-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/613157\/","title":{"rendered":"US world champion insists Naoya Inoue is &#8216;not a hard fight&#8217;: &#8220;I know how to beat him&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 33 fights, nobody has been able to solve the puzzle that Naoya Inoue presents. Does an unbeaten retirement await one of boxing\u2019s modern greats?<\/p>\n<p>The Japanese phenomenon has 27 knockouts and <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/naoya-inoue-vs-junto-nakatani-live\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recently beat countryman Junto Nakatani in Tokyo to solidify his position at the top of the pound-for-pound list.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Inoue has laid out the plan for the rest of his campaign in no uncertain terms \u2013 stick around at super-bantamweight for one more fight, likely Jesse Rodriguez, before moving up to featherweight in pursuit of belts in a fifth division.<\/p>\n<p>If that is how things play out, there are currently four champions waiting for him: the WBO\u2019s Rafael Espinoza, the WBA\u2019s Brandon Figueroa, the IBF\u2019s Angelo Leo and the WBC\u2019s Bruce Carrington.<\/p>\n<p>Though not the only titlist at 126lbs to call Inoue out, Carrington has been perhaps the most vocal, and has now doubled down on his claim that defeating \u2018The Monster\u2019 would not be too tough a night at the office.<\/p>\n<p>Asked by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Dlfl6vNKwmM&amp;t=505s\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luis Para<\/a> if he believes it is a hard matchup, \u2018Shu Shu\u2019 was clear in his answer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. I think he actually plays [into] my style. I think he\u2019s a good boxer, very twitchy and things like that, but there are certain things that I know I could use to make him fight my fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Carrington then questioned whether or not Inoue\u2019s knockout power would carry up in weight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be honest, I think it will be tough. Any of the champions will give him a tough fight \u2026 I don\u2019t think Inoue\u2019s punching power would show as much with the champions in the featherweight division.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Carrington won the WBC belt by stopping Carlost Castro at Madison Square Garden back in January. He puts it on the line in a first defence against Rene Palacios in July.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Inoue will have a close eye on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.co.uk\/boxing\/story\/_\/id\/48516323\/bam-rodriguez-challenge-antonio-vargas-bantamweight-belt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\u2018Bam\u2019 Rodriguez\u2019s upcoming move to bantamweight against Antonio Vargas in Phoenix on June 13<\/a>, with victory for the former likely locking in the Japanese champion\u2019s final fight at 122lbs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 33 fights, nobody has been able to solve the puzzle that Naoya Inoue presents. Does an unbeaten&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-613157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}