Naoya Inoue pointed to his chin and dared Luis Nery to hit him in the middle of their fight for his undisputed super bantamweight title on Monday evening. Inoue dodged a pair of punches midway through the fourth round of their blockbuster at Tokyo Dome, dropped his left arm and gestured toward his face with his right hand as he strode toward the middle of the ring.
He unloaded a mighty right when Nery ventured too close, and a brief exchange left the fighters face-to-face in the middle of the ring. Inoue dropped both arms to the side, gave a slight shrug and tapped his chin again. He was almost begging Nery to attack, and the crowd was eating it up. Nery, wisely, did not take the bait. The two combatants were physically close enough to reach out and land a blow but could not have been further apart in the ebb and flow of the fight.
The sweet science can be equal parts combat and spectacle at its best, and Inoue’s mastery of both aspects was on display as he retained the undisputed super bantamweight crown with a sixth-round TKO of Nery on Monday night.