Comments Thread For: Inoue On Tapales Win: It Was One Of The Most Intense Fights I've Ever Had

[Elheath]

Wasn’t so much the opponent but the weight. I thought I could see inoue go to lightweight and that’d be his undoing but maybe I overestimated him. Maybe 122 or 126 is his ceiling. I’m sure he will continue to go up until he loses or he is a very close tough fight that he will wins then settles there or come back down. I hear Luis Nery is next and I rate Nery higher then Tápales so if he struggled vs Tápales, he def will have a tough night with Nery. Hope we see it next

Likely a compliment for the expectations you have for Inoue, but the definition of "struggled" for you is quite skewed here I believe. True, it took longer for him to KO Tapales but one thing you need to remember that there was not one realistic moment in the fight where the viewer was worried that Inoue will LOSE the fight. The only thing he may have "struggled" was to KO Tapales earlier, but the win was already in the bag. Inoue also took a long time KOing Butler as well compared to Rodriguez who got KOed in R2, but does that mean he "struggled" against Butler or that Butler was a better boxer than Rodriguez? Heck no, if Inoue decided that it wasn't worth chasing him and just let him run away, he would've still won the fight via landslide decision.

Against Tapales, consider that Inoue already had one down of Tapales in R4, and was widely leading all three cards with the scores of 90-80, 89-81, 88-82. Even considering the closest card, for Tapales to win the match from there he had to either win via KO, or win the last three rounds and also drop him more than three times...which I'm sure even the most pessimistic person would've seen. As a result, after being on the defensive for most of the night and being extremely careful, Tapales who actually still haven't given up on getting the win had to go for the KO and came out offensive in R10 and as a result got KOed. Those who were expecting a faster match (myself included) was assuming that Tapales would come out swinging, and also underestimated how focused defensively he would fight.

When Inoue and Nery fights, there is a good chance that it ends early if both come out swinging for the KO, something most viewers expected Tapales to do all night before the match. Or, Nery can go on the 100% defensive the whole night ala Butler and lose via wide decision, and still claim that Inoue "struggled" against him because he failed to KO. In that case it just makes Nery a very pathetic phony, even more so than ever.

And lastly...if you still consider Inoue to have struggled against Tapales, then that will make Nery having gone life and death into world war III against Hovhannisyan.

[Robi13]

Likely a compliment for the expectations you have for Inoue, but the definition of "struggled" for you is quite skewed here I believe. True, it took longer for him to KO Tapales but one thing you need to remember that there was not one realistic moment in the fight where the viewer was worried that Inoue will LOSE the fight. The only thing he may have "struggled" was to KO Tapales earlier, but the win was already in the bag. Inoue also took a long time KOing Butler as well compared to Rodriguez who got KOed in R2, but does that mean he "struggled" against Butler or that Butler was a better boxer than Rodriguez? Heck no, if Inoue decided that it wasn't worth chasing him and just let him run away, he would've still won the fight via landslide decision.

Against Tapales, consider that Inoue already had one down of Tapales in R4, and was widely leading all three cards with the scores of 90-80, 89-81, 88-82. Even considering the closest card, for Tapales to win the match from there he had to either win via KO, or win the last three rounds and also drop him more than three times...which I'm sure even the most pessimistic person would've seen. As a result, after being on the defensive for most of the night and being extremely careful, Tapales who actually still haven't given up on getting the win had to go for the KO and came out offensive in R10 and as a result got KOed. Those who were expecting a faster match (myself included) was assuming that Tapales would come out swinging, and also underestimated how focused defensively he would fight.

When Inoue and Nery fights, there is a good chance that it ends early if both come out swinging for the KO, something most viewers expected Tapales to do all night before the match. Or, Nery can go on the 100% defensive the whole night ala Butler and lose via wide decision, and still claim that Inoue "struggled" against him because he failed to KO. In that case it just makes Nery a very pathetic phony, even more so than ever.

And lastly...if you still consider Inoue to have struggled against Tapales, then that will make Nery having gone life and death into world war III against Hovhannisyan.

I’m 100 percent in agreement with what you said I’m just basing my statement on behalf of what inoue himself said. He said it was one of his toughest fights. Watching the fight I struggle to find what was tough about it so I’m attributing it to the weight jump but I may be wrong, if I am wrong then I have no clue what made the fight one of inoues toughest. He did say that himself though

[Elheath]

I’m 100 percent in agreement with what you said I’m just basing my statement on behalf of what inoue himself said. He said it was one of his toughest fights. Watching the fight I struggle to find what was tough about it so I’m attributing it to the weight jump but I may be wrong, if I am wrong then I have no clue what made the fight one of inoues toughest. He did say that himself though

I think there is/was a slight difference in the meaning of toughest that got lost between the translations from Japanese to English. Not saying it is wrong, but the context and the background of the question during the interview might be missing. I saw his post-match in Japanese but this is the impression I got from him regarding the fight:
Tapales was the toughest opponent because he continued to get up with no sign of damage. It was intense because he pressed on, even in the defensive, to continue to try to grab that win. In fact Inoue himself was surprised when Tapales crumbled at R10 and couldn't get up, as he didn't think he'd accumulated that much damage given that his facial expressions and body language didn't show it. In fact outside Donaire, you could possibly say that Tapales was the only guy he has fought in years where the opponent didn't give up on winning until the final KO.

Another factor, this match was actually one of the very few (if any) where Inoue actually mentioned that he will make history and show the crowd the moment he becomes a two division undisputed. Of course everyone expected him to win and win via KO, but until now he always was more focused on "defeating the opponent giving his best" and rarely said he will make history even if he eventually ends up doing so. But for this match, possibly for the first time in his career Inoue's main goal was to "make history" over "defeating the opponent". You might think it is the same result, but the big difference was that in his mind winning was more important than defeating. The first few rounds, like every other match Inoue was warming up and also observing how the opponent will come to him, while still being on the offensive enough to win the rounds. In the 4th round he went for the attack and dropped Tapales, and at that point he was thinking about finishing it in R5, but then the huge surprise came to both Inoue and the viewers in that Tapales not only was not falling, he was attacking back and still going for the win. He was on the defensive, but he hadn't given up on winning. Even Inoue himself has mentioned that the term "win by decisions" had glanced his mind late in the match after Tapales seemed to just have an endless amount of HP in his tank. In the past, an Inoue trying to defeat his opponent would've charged in more from round 6-8 to get that 99% KO victory, with a 1% chance of KO loss from Tapales landing a miracle counter on him. However, this Inoue trying to make history by winning the match decided that instead of taking the 99% chance of KO, went for a style that would've gotten him a 70%KO win and 30% decision win.

In the past, he described the Donaire I as "that was such an awesome fun fight!" Yes, a match where he literally got his orbital bones broken that he duked out a win was a "fun" fight, in that the adrenaline running in his blood probably was the highest he had in his career. It ended up in a decision, but it probably is one of Inoue's favorite matches in his career.
He was polite about it, but after the Butler fight he said "he was glad to have accomplished becoming an undisputed boxer" and essentially said the match was a "boring" fight without using the direct term. He was frustrated at having had to literally play tag against an opponent who came in from the intent of losing via 120-108 even before the match started.
After Fulton, he said "I was able to execute everything I practiced perfectly". He was happy about being literally flawless, but also satisfied with how the match went and not necessarily super excited about how the fight with Fulton went given the fear he was showing throughout the match, and he was doubting his ability to win after a few rounds.
Tapales was a physically tough guy fighting an intense match, because he never lost the will to win until the final moment. He didn't lose because he was mentally defeated or was looking to survive over win, he lost because he truly wanted the win, and gave everything that he was able to give, and just couldn't overcome the obstacle and his body physically lost when the temple shot got him in the 10R.

Lastly, when asked by one of the Japanese reporters about whether "the struggle you had against Tapales has made some people say you may have finally hit a wall, but what do you think of that opinion?" and his answer was "honestly, if dropping an opponent twice on a way to a stoppage in R10 on an undisputed clash is considered hitting a wall for them, I really don't know what else I can say. Bluntly put, but you guys know I'm quite unscathed, right?"

Tapales was tough physically, and even tougher mentally, and his will power was intense. But Inoue didn't feel like he struggled as in he was never in the risk of losing the fight. He was indeed relatively undamaged as his face showed compared to that of the beaten Tapales.

[SceneBoxer]

Tapales new he couldn't keep taking anymore big shots, that was enough. he fought ten times better than fulton, I think he would beat fulton easily.

I'd like to see that fight, Tapales vs. Fulton on the undercard of Inoue-Nery... or Tapales vs. MJ rematch or Tapales vs. Goodman....

[Elheath]

I'd like to see that fight, Tapales vs. Fulton on the undercard of Inoue-Nery... or Tapales vs. MJ rematch or Tapales vs. Goodman....

I think Fulton is officially up at featherweight now so that probably won't happen. However the others may all actually happen.

I mean, if Inoue vacates all the belts in two years (at the latest), that will put Tapales at 33, MJ and Nery and 31, and Goodman at 27. There is a possibility that all four can be still high ranking enough to fight for the vacant belt.

[Robi13]

I think there is/was a slight difference in the meaning of toughest that got lost between the translations from Japanese to English. Not saying it is wrong, but the context and the background of the question during the interview might be missing. I saw his post-match in Japanese but this is the impression I got from him regarding the fight:
Tapales was the toughest opponent because he continued to get up with no sign of damage. It was intense because he pressed on, even in the defensive, to continue to try to grab that win. In fact Inoue himself was surprised when Tapales crumbled at R10 and couldn't get up, as he didn't think he'd accumulated that much damage given that his facial expressions and body language didn't show it. In fact outside Donaire, you could possibly say that Tapales was the only guy he has fought in years where the opponent didn't give up on winning until the final KO.

Another factor, this match was actually one of the very few (if any) where Inoue actually mentioned that he will make history and show the crowd the moment he becomes a two division undisputed. Of course everyone expected him to win and win via KO, but until now he always was more focused on "defeating the opponent giving his best" and rarely said he will make history even if he eventually ends up doing so. But for this match, possibly for the first time in his career Inoue's main goal was to "make history" over "defeating the opponent". You might think it is the same result, but the big difference was that in his mind winning was more important than defeating. The first few rounds, like every other match Inoue was warming up and also observing how the opponent will come to him, while still being on the offensive enough to win the rounds. In the 4th round he went for the attack and dropped Tapales, and at that point he was thinking about finishing it in R5, but then the huge surprise came to both Inoue and the viewers in that Tapales not only was not falling, he was attacking back and still going for the win. He was on the defensive, but he hadn't given up on winning. Even Inoue himself has mentioned that the term "win by decisions" had glanced his mind late in the match after Tapales seemed to just have an endless amount of HP in his tank. In the past, an Inoue trying to defeat his opponent would've charged in more from round 6-8 to get that 99% KO victory, with a 1% chance of KO loss from Tapales landing a miracle counter on him. However, this Inoue trying to make history by winning the match decided that instead of taking the 99% chance of KO, went for a style that would've gotten him a 70%KO win and 30% decision win.

In the past, he described the Donaire I as "that was such an awesome fun fight!" Yes, a match where he literally got his orbital bones broken that he duked out a win was a "fun" fight, in that the adrenaline running in his blood probably was the highest he had in his career. It ended up in a decision, but it probably is one of Inoue's favorite matches in his career.
He was polite about it, but after the Butler fight he said "he was glad to have accomplished becoming an undisputed boxer" and essentially said the match was a "boring" fight without using the direct term. He was frustrated at having had to literally play tag against an opponent who came in from the intent of losing via 120-108 even before the match started.
After Fulton, he said "I was able to execute everything I practiced perfectly". He was happy about being literally flawless, but also satisfied with how the match went and not necessarily super excited about how the fight with Fulton went given the fear he was showing throughout the match, and he was doubting his ability to win after a few rounds.
Tapales was a physically tough guy fighting an intense match, because he never lost the will to win until the final moment. He didn't lose because he was mentally defeated or was looking to survive over win, he lost because he truly wanted the win, and gave everything that he was able to give, and just couldn't overcome the obstacle and his body physically lost when the temple shot got him in the 10R.

Lastly, when asked by one of the Japanese reporters about whether "the struggle you had against Tapales has made some people say you may have finally hit a wall, but what do you think of that opinion?" and his answer was "honestly, if dropping an opponent twice on a way to a stoppage in R10 on an undisputed clash is considered hitting a wall for them, I really don't know what else I can say. Bluntly put, but you guys know I'm quite unscathed, right?"

Tapales was tough physically, and even tougher mentally, and his will power was intense. But Inoue didn't feel like he struggled as in he was never in the risk of losing the fight. He was indeed relatively undamaged as his face showed compared to that of the beaten Tapales.

Appreciate the feedback. Well
maybe inoue will end up going to lightweight one day then. He’s that special

[Elheath]

Appreciate the feedback. Well
maybe inoue will end up going to lightweight one day then. He’s that special

Also, if Inoue was just looking to make divisions and wants to go up to 126 in 2025 and win a belt, then fight until there is a weak link champion at 130 to spring up just to get a belt I think it will be quite doable. Inoue will surely have a harder time KOing people as he goes up, but winning via decision I think he can go quite high. I just don't think he's the type that wants to go for that type of path, and would rather duke it out in 126 until near retirement and aim to go undisputed over collecting divisions.

[Lance98]

Tapales wasn't that good and had a few losses by TKO against bums, and inoue took some shots from him, and it took 10 rounds to beat him. inoue is not as good as people make him out to be. He admitted that he struggled against this bum.

[Just looking]

I'm pretty sure Tapales could get back on his feet, but knowing the round was only starting he chose to not take the beat down that was to come

[landotter]

Tapales wasn't that good and had a few losses by TKO against bums, and inoue took some shots from him, and it took 10 rounds to beat him. inoue is not as good as people make him out to be. He admitted that he struggled against this bum.

I mean obviously you are right. Since Inoue has not beaten every opponent within 3 rounds, he is a completely overrated. Thank the Great Boxer Idols you are brave enough to point out his short comings.