'THE MONSTER' PREVAILS OVER THE 'FILIPINO FLASH' IN JAPAN, WINS WBSS FINALS
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 07 Nov 2019
In a riveting and thrilling fight of the year candidate championship bout, the 'Monster' prevailed over the 'Filipino Flash' in Saitama, Japan Thursday night as the power puncher Naoya Inoue dropped Nonito Donaire Jnr in the 11th round en route to a unanimous decision victory and became the WBSS champion as well as IBF/WBA unified bantamweight world champion.
Inoue, 26, ten years younger than Donaire, not only showed his youth advantage, but his speed and power as well as he beat Donaire to the punch up until the eighth round when Donaire rallied by connecting with several hard rights to the head of Inoue that put the Japanese in grave danger. In the 9th round Donaire connected with another right that staggered Inoue with blood pouring from his right eyebrow and nose that put Donaire in control of the fight.
In the 10th round however, Inoue dug deep and came back strong to turn the fight around. In the 11th, Inoue connected with a vicious body shot that put down Donaire to his knees grimacing in total pain. Donaire however showed a lot of hearrt by standing up and continue to fight. In the last round, Donaire seemed to be too weak to mount a last ditch rally as Inoue continued to connect with hard shots though Donaire survived the round.
Inoue won with scores of 116-111, 117-109, 114-113 and remained undefeated at 19-0-0 with 16 knockouts. Donaire (40-6-0, 26KOs) at 36, showed he still has the grit and intelligence to face one of the best pound for pound boxers in the world.
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