Naoya Inoue delivers vicious knockout of Ye Joon Kim to retain undisputed world titles
Naoya Inoue retained his undisputed super-bantamweight world titles with a trademark vicious early knockout of Ye Joon Kim in Tokyo.
‘The Monster’ once again lived up to his billing at the Ariake Arena on Friday, dominating a short-lived contest against his late replacement opponent, who had stepped in to take on one of boxing’s most daunting challenges at just two weeks’ notice after Australian challenger Sam Goodman again pulled out as the result of a recurring injury that also forced his withdrawal from a bout with Inoue on Christmas Eve.
As expected Kim proved no match for the champion as he never got remotely close to threatening what would have gone down as one of the biggest upsets in the sport’s history in the same realm as Buster Douglas’ famous shock of then heavyweight king Mike Tyson in Tokyo back in 1990.
After getting the measure of his new opponent early on, Inoue quickly increased the tempo after a quiet opening round and found the mark with a number of wincing right hands to the body to pile pressure on Kim, who had success with a couple of bright counters but quickly felt the overwhelming power of one of boxing’s current pound-for-pound greats and most devastating punchers.
It was one-way traffic as Inoue swiftly went up through the gears, securing a typically ferocious knockout late in the fourth round as a left hand set up a huge straight right that landed flush on Kim’s face, sending him spiralling back towards the ropes and down as he was counted out by referee Mark Nelson.
It was the third successful defence of his super-bantamweight belts from two-time undisputed world champion Inoue, who stays unbeaten and moves to 29-0 with a 26th career knockout.
The 31-year-old, a four-weight world champion, has big plans ahead for the rest of 2025 as promoter and Top Rank chief Bob Arum once again confirmed plans to take him to the United States in the spring with a high-profile contest in Saudi Arabia also expected later in the year.
Arum previously said the plan was for Inoue to take on Mexico’s Alan David Picasso - the WBC’s mandatory challenger at super-bantamweight - in Las Vegas in April before a proposed mega-fight with reigning WBC bantamweight champion and fellow unbeaten Japanese superstar Junto Nakatani in Tokyo somewhere down the line.
As for Kim, he drops to 21-3-2 with his third professional loss and first since being outpointed by American Rob Diezel in April 2023.
On Friday’s eventful undercard, Jin Sasaki won a gruelling 12-round unanimous decision against former sparring partner Shoki Sakai and afterwards called out reigning welterweight world champions Terence Crawford, Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, Mario Barrios and Eimantas Stanionis.
Toshiki Shimomachi and Tsubasa Narai edged contentious points wins over Misaki Hirano and Kai Watanabe respectively, after Goki Kobayashi was stunned in a split-decision upset by Yuni Takada.
