The Monday LunchBox

The phenomena that is Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue successfully defended his WBA and IBF world bantamweight titles in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday.

The Japanese champion dispatched Filipino contender Michael Dasmarinas with a succession of hurtful body shots over the completed two rounds before landing the telling blow high to his ribcage after 2:45 of the third.

The first round was very much a feeling out round for Inoue as he assessed his opponent. He began to take control in the second dropping Dasmarinas for the first time and then sealed the deal with two knockdowns in the third. The champion landed 65% of his power punches to the Filipino’s 25%.

This was Inoue’s second showing in the US on a Top Rank card and further added to his developing resume. Already a three weight world champion and Ring magazine #2 in their pound-for-pound listings the undefeated Japanese looks set for superstardom.

Inoue raised his record to 21-0 (18 KO’s) with Dasmarinas dropping to 30-3-1 (20 KO’s).

In a busy weekend of action Jarmall Charlo (32-0, 22 KO’s) successfully defended his WBC world middleweight title against Juan Macias Montiel with a unanimous 118-109, 119-109, 120-108 points decision in Houston, Texas.

Meanwhile in El Paso, Jaime Munguia (37-0, 30 KO’s) stopped Poland’s game Kamil Szeremata inside six rounds. The Pole was coming of a seventh round stoppage defeat to Gennadiy Golovkin and Munguia went one round better. With such an impressive knockout ratio the Mexican Munguia looks ripe for a title shot at one of the middleweight champions.

There was also a notable victory for WBO female super-featherweight champion Michela Mayer (15-0, 5 KO’s) over tough Argentinian Erica Farias by unanimous points decision on the Inoue show.

A spectacular one-punch knockout by Gabriel Rosado (26-13-1, 14 KO’s) over previously undefeated Bektemir Melikuziev (7-1, 6 KO’s) capped a busy weekend that signified a return to normality with attendees at all major cards in the USA.