Naoya Inoue pointed to his chin and challenged Luis Nery to punch him in the middle of their fight for his undisputed super bantamweight title on Monday night. Inoue dodged a few punches midway through the fourth round of their blockbuster at Tokyo Dome, dropped his right arm and gestured to his face with his left hand as he walked to the center of the ring.
He unloaded a mighty left when Nery ventured too close, and a brief exchange left the fighters face to face in the center of the ring with their guards aloft. Inoue dropped both arms to the side, shrugged, and tapped his chin again. He almost begged Nery to attack, and the crowd ate it up. Nery cleverly didn’t take the bait. The two combatants were physically close enough to reach out and strike a blow, but could not be further apart during the ebb and flow of the fight.
The sweet science, at its best, can be equal parts battle and spectacle, 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.
