Inoue rallies to retain junior featherweight title

Naoya Inoue suffered the first knockdown of his illustrious career in the opening round but rebounded to floor Luis Nery three times en route to a Round 6 KO victory to retain his undisputed junior featherweight championship on Monday in Tokyo.

There were 44,000-plus on hand for the first boxing event at the famed Tokyo Dome since the Mike Tyson-Buster Douglas heavyweight title shocker in February 1990. And those fans witnessed another surprise when Nery dropped Inoue with a counter right hand in Round 1.

Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs) smirked and breathed a sigh of relief as he walked back to his corner. “How did you like that big surprise in the first round?” he asked the crowd. ” …That happening gave me motivation and I was so focused until the end of the fight.”

The following round, Inoue returned the favor with a counter left hook, the fifth knockdown of Nery’s career. The 31-year-old slapped his gloves together as the referee counted.

The Japanese star deposited Mexico’s Nery on the canvas with another left hook in Round 5. Then in Round 6, “The Monster” backed Nery (35-2, 27 KOs) into the ropes and delivered a sharp right hand that sent the challenger’s head crashing onto the bottom rope as the referee quickly halted the bout without a count at 1:22.

This post was originally published on ESPN