Over the past couple of weeks, we were witness to two spectacular performances by arguably the top two pound-for-pound fighters in the sport today.
Naoya Inoue (25-0, 22KOs) and Terence Crawford, both undefeated — are currently perched at the top of boxing’s apogee.
The fact that they both have exciting fighting styles makes the equation more palatable. Unlike the days when the safety conscious, defensive master Floyd Mayweather ruled the roost — both Inoue and Crawford like to bring the action and are not afraid to go for the stoppage win which endears them to fight fans.
INOUE. Entering into the Stephen Fulton fight, there was a small but vocal minority who supported Fulton and thought he had what it takes to defeat “The Monster.”
Some were pointing out that Inoue had a hard time in the first fight against Nonito Donaire where the latter broke his orbital bone and that size had a lot to do with it. Fulton was bigger and stronger since Inoue was moving up in weight and this would be the decisive factor.
Turns out they were dead wrong as Inoue pummeled Fulton all night long with violent vicious punches. Right in the very first round, the “smaller” Inoue made Fulton tentative as the latter felt his speed and power.
With that Fulton win, Inoue recorded his 14th stoppage in his last 15 fights, the exception being the first Donaire fight and is now a 4 division champion.
CRAWFORD. For the first time in history we have a unified welterweight champion who now holds four major alphabet titles.
No mean feat, considering that some pundits thought the Errol Spence fight was too close to call. As it turned out, Crawford showed us that he was on an entirely different level.
The difference in hand speed was apparent, and Crawford who was campaigning as a lightweight not too long ago, appeared to be the stronger puncher.
Remember a few years back when Manny was still active but on the twilight of his career and everyone thought it would be good to match him up against Crawford? I was among those who thought Manny would get eviscerated by “Bud” as he no longer had the speed and the power to compete at the elite level.
These two superstars are now boxing’s flagship fighters and it looks like the sport is in good hands once again.
LAST ROUNDS. Are on Jojie Cabrillos and Jul Calderon Subayno of the MTCC Branch 2 who are celebrating their birthdays this week. Cheers, guys!