Podcast: Inoue shines vs. Tapales, claims fighter of the year honors
Plus: Ioka-Perez preview; Wilder, Davis updates; 2024 outlook
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For the final podcast of 2023, it’s a hybrid recap and preview show. First, we recapped and discussed the great Naoya Inoue’s dominating knockout of Marlon Tapales to become the undisputed junior featherweight champion on Tuesday. Then we previewed the last world title bout of the year, WBA junior bantamweight titlist Kazuto Ioka’s defense against Josber Perez on New Year’s Eve. We also discussed the fighter of the year race, a few news items and looked ahead to key storylines for 2024.
Here is what’s on the show (in order):
Recap and thoughts on Inoue’s 10th-round destruction of Tapales to fully unify the junior featherweight division and become the second male boxer to become an undisputed champion in two divisions in the four-belt era.
Discussion of the top 2023 fighter of the year candidates and why I picked Inoue.
Preview of what will be Ioka’s 12th New Year’s Eve fight when he faces Perez on Sunday.
Deontay Wilder saying he will fight on in the wake of his one-sided loss to Joseph Parker, his apparent interest in still fighting Anthony Joshua and the absurdity of him saying Joshua is looking for a way out of the fight when it was Wilder who lost badly not Joshua, who had signed for the fight contingent on neither of them losing on Dec. 23.
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Gervonta Davis’ comments that he would not consider a fight with Inoue as some on social media were absurdly suggesting he do.
Discussion of the biggest boxing stories of 2023 and what is in store for 2024, such as PBC’s move to Amazon Prime Video and more big fights taking place in Saudi Arabia.
Please give it a listen! Also: rate, review, subscribe and enjoy!
We bring you the preview each Friday and the weekend recap each Monday. Let me know what you think of the podcast by leaving your comments.
Pro Boxing Fans appearance
I joined my friends at Pro Boxing Fans to discuss Deontay Wilder’s loss to Joseph Parker, Anthony Joshua’s win over Otto Wallin and their futures as well as Naoya Inoue's historic KO victory over Marlon Tapales and more. Please check out the video here:
TKO Boxing appearance
I also joined TKO Boxing to discuss the ‘Day of Reckoning’ card fights and fallout, including Wilder, Joshua and cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia; Saudi Arabia as the home now to many major fights; a look ahead to Tyson Fury-Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight title and more. Please watch the video here:
Inoue photo: Naoki Fukuda
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I think Inoue is a credit to the sport and the FOTY. Haney and Bud close behind. Two things though. Tapales was the worst unified champ I've seen since Julius Indongo. Yes he was tough. But so basic. Stood in front of Inoue like a human punching bag. And that leads to the other thing. In spite of repeatedly hitting Tapales flush, over and over. Inoue struggled to finally get the KO. In fact you can see a bit of frustration in Inoue's body language late in the fight. Yes, Inoue eventually got the stoppage. But I think big picture, Inoue may run into his own Bivol/Canelo scenario at Featherweight. I'm speculating he's not going to have enough power to physically dominate that division. Heck, that upcoming fight with the rugged Luis Nery is actually interesting now.
I can’t see Inoue at lightweight Nathan I think the weight would be too much for him to carry and will his power go with him it would be a good matchup but it won’t happen in my opinion