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Toru Takahashi / Associated Press
Naoya Inoue retained her WBA (Super), IBF and The ring bantamweight titles after defeating challenger Jason Moloney by knockout in the seventh round Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The man AKA “The Monster” dominated the entire fight and received high praise for his work, including from ESPN’s Steve Kim and Max Kellerman and The Athletic’s Joe Lago:
The Athletic’s Lance Pugmire offered some updates mid-fight and the victor won every round in his scorekeeper before the knockout at 2:59 of the seventh round:
Inoue, who made her Las Vegas debut on Saturday, he now has a professional record of 20-0 with 17 knockouts. In May 2018, he won the WBA bantamweight title with a first-round TKO of Jamie McDonnell, who had five consecutive successful title defenses before facing off. Inoue.
The 27 year old mounted a successful title defense against Juan Carlos Payano with another first round TKO five months later before winning the IBF and being vacated The ring bantamweight titles off Emmanuel Rodriguez with a second round TKO in May 2019.
Rodriguez was 19-0 before the fight, and Payano was 20-1 before his fight with the champion.
Inoue won a The WBA bantamweight (super) title, plus a World Boxing Super Series title by unanimous decision over four-weight world champion Nonito Donaire last November.
Mike coppinger The Athletic’s ranked Inoue their second-best pound-for-pound fighter before the game, and ESPN Ariel helwani called him “one of the best [pound-for-pound] fighters of the planet “.
Moloney is now 21-2 in his career, with his only other loss coming against Rodriguez by split decision in October 2018.
The 29-year-old fighter is the WBA bantamweight champion of Oceania and had won four fights in a row since his only loss, and his last time in the ring resulted in a June 25 win over Leonardo Báez after retiring after the seventh round.
Eighteen of Moloney’s victories have come by knockout.
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