Jason Moloney is good. Naoya Inoue is special. Thus, the result of their fight was no surprise.
Inoue methodically broke down the game, but overmatched Australian, put him down twice and ultimately stopped him with a second to go in Round 7 Saturday night inside the MGM Grand “bubble” in Las Vegas.
The Japanese phenom, who retained his bantamweight title, was coming off the toughest fight of his life: a unanimous decision over Nonito Donaire last November in which he had to fight through a broken orbital bone and a bad cut.
Inoue’s face held up perfectly and he never looked better.
“As you go through fight by fight, you learn things from the previous fight,” Inoue said through a translator. “Regarding that, I think I’m getting wiser and better.”
Moloney (21-2, 18 KOs) had won four consecutive fights since he lost a split decision to Emmanuel Rodriguez in his first title shot in 2018, including a seventh-round knockout of Leonardo Baez in July. He’s a capable fighter.
The problem is that Inoue (20-0, 17 KOs) is otherworldly. He was faster, more powerful and ultimately just much better than his opponent on Saturday.
Inoue patiently picked Moloney apart with his stiff jab and well-timed power punches from the opening bell, gradually picking up his pace and causing more and more damage as the fight progressed. Moloney simply didn’t have answers for what Inoue threw at him.
Moloney went down for the first time about 30 seconds into Round 6, the result of a counter left hook. He wasn’t terribly hurt but went into survival mode to finish the round.
Inoue didn’t do much in Round 7, which gave the illusion that Moloney had rebounded ever so slightly. Then, in the final seconds, Inoue landed a counter straight right that put Moloney down again. He was on all fours as the referee counted. When he tried to get up onto just his knees, he toppled over.
That was that. The ref ended it there.
“The final punch, the finishing punch, I’m very happy and satisfied with that punch,” Inoue said. “Moloney has a great defense, and it was difficult to get through. The two [knockdown] punches you mentioned are something we really practiced in Japan a lot.
“And I was able to perform well and use it, and I’m very happy with that.”
Inoue, No. 3 on Boxing Junkie’s pound-for-pound list, is the boogeyman of the 118-pound division but he has talented rivals at the weight. The best are fellow titleholders Nordine Oubaali and Johnriel Casimero, who Inoue was expected to face before the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
Another option mentioned by Inoue is a rematch with Donaire.
“Those [fighters],” he said, “are in are in my sights as far as targets go.”
The problem for them is that they would also be in his sights in the ring. That never ends well.
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In preliminary bouts, Mikael Mayer (14-0, 5 KOs) won a vacant junior lightweight title by easily outpointing previously unbeaten Ewa Broadnicka (19-1, 2 KOs) in a 10-round bout.
And junior lightweight prospect Robson Conceicao (15-0, 7 KOs) survived a knockdown and two point deductions to defeat Luis Coria (12-4, 7 KOs) by a close unanimous decision.