Who Said Anything About AVOIDING Espinosa???... Personally, REED Thinks Being 6'2 Leaves MORE of Espinosa to Be Hit by Inoue, Particularly to the Body...REED is Only Countering Neil's Point About Anything OTHER than Espinosa Being a BULLSHIT Fight for Inoue @ '26...6'2 Featherweight or Bust??? Admittedly, Brandon Figueroa's a Bullshit Fight for Inoue, But if He's a Necessary Step Towards Ultimately UNIFYING '26, So Be It...Angelo Leo ISN'T a Bullshit Fight @ All...& Shu Shu in MSG is Easily the Biggest, Most Mainstream Fight of Inoue's AMERICAN Career... A Black, NYC Shit Talker is EXACTLY Who Inoue Needs to Be Matched w/in the States... REED
lets not make carrington out to be kevin kelley. i like the guy but he's beat absolutely no one and has looked mediocre half the time lately. angelo leo is ok. he clearly wants it seeing how he went to japan to make himself known. thats an ok fight but inoue will be -1500 favorite.
Well considering he’s already 33 years old and has had multiple fights and title defenses in a short amount of time and is almost at the twilight of his career I’d say it makes sense that he’s not going to just wait around on Bam since he wants to move up one more time before retiring. Hes giving Bam a chance of a super fight. It’s up to Bam if he wants to fight Inoue before he makes his move to 126.
Inoue isn’t the kind of fighter to intentionally duck anyone. He’ll most likely face off with any of the top 126 fighters including Espinoza. These 126 champs though need to start fighting each other though instead of waiting on Inoue to move up. Espinoza, Figueroa, Leo, and Carrington should be fighting in a unification bout. They need to start putting more life into this division.
Im a bit of an Inoue critique, but I agree with you. While his resume is lacking for an ATG, i dont think its his fault. I dont doubt hell try to fight the best (and Bam) at 126. And definitely agree on the second part of your post. Nothing more frustrating than fighters waiting for a big fight to fall on their lap, instead of working to getting it.
He has 2 wins over Nonito Donaire, who I personally consider as an ATG. I’d say it was more frustrating that he couldn’t get a fight with Chocolatito, although to be fair he did show desire for that fight but Chocolatito had no interest. Inoue fighting Bam would at least make up for that. The 126 division is stacked with good fighters but it’s been a frustrating division. It’s why I don’t get why people think Inoue needs to fight each of these guys one by one when they can be facing off against each other. Inoue fighting the winners of any of those match ups would make the fight more worthwhile.
Donaire was considered washed when he faced Inoue. Granted, he had a bit of a career resurgence after the first fight, but it clearly wasnt a prime donaire. But as you said, you cant blame him for that
Can’t take away those victories from him though, Donaire was still a solid fighter by the time Inoue got to him. Inoue at least has a victory over a future HOFer. Bam looks to be someone who might also be a future HOFer as well so if Inoue manages to beat him then that’s another great fighter on his resume.
