I'd pick Inoue in the end. Sure, his competition has been bad but I do think he's completely legit and on this level at BW. I don't see Lora having the chin to take his best, or having anything to prevent Inoue from hammering him as he fades down the stretch. Basically, a classic case of a bad match-up for a better fighter IMO.
Tough fight for Inoue but I think his power and body shots will eventually find its way on Happy towards a stoppage. Happy did indeed beat better competition but style wise I think Inoue's firepower, economical punching technique, and fast counterpunches will outgun Lora.
Lora, he was just a more skilled and talented fighter at his peak and I don't see any stylistic advantage for Inoue. The chasm in quality between Lora and the fighters Inoue has beaten would swallow the Indian subcontinent.
You don't think Inoue has a style advantage? I think he has a clear one. He's got the longer jab, won't care about what's coming back - I mean, if he was cool swarming Donaire, I don't see what Lora is gonna hit him with to stop him. Lora slowed down a lot late in fights, and I think he's pretty much guaranteed to here with Inoue's wicked body work. I do get that Inoue isn't super man though, despite the vast majority of the current boxing scene treating him that way. He isn't as technically brilliant as people think, nor is he has ridiculously potent. He needs to grow some balls and challenge himself as well.
If Inoue had cleanly beaten a fighter with the style and skillset comparable to a Davila or Lujan type fighter I'd find it easier to place belief in him beating someone like Lora. Somebody with enough fundamental blocking and slipping ability, upper body/head positioning, footwork, defensive angling, good feet/balance who could test how advanced and creative his offensive arsenal really is and if he has the sort of consistent timing and nuanced attack required to break a fighter like that down without needing to blast them out or distress them with his power. And one who can quickly punish any missed shots, intercept any telegraphed efforts and throw a few fluid and accurate combos and counter combos at Inoue's static defensive posture. Or if he can adjust and mix up his jab to establish it if a fighter is initially able to take it away from him as Lora was able to do. Or make Happy fall into an overly mindset with a high output of accurate straight punching etc. I'm not convinced mate. A more gifted physical freak like Perez who showed all round better offensive schooling and combination punching than I've ever seen from Inoue still really struggled to hit Lora with much good clean work imo even with him lacking sharpness and being badly weight drain affected in the later rounds. I think had Inoue tried to walk down the younger, prime Donaire like he did leaving the defensive holes that he did, he'd probably have gotten stopped imo. The old Donaire is still a dangerous fighter and a bigger puncher than Lora but always tended to need the gaps to be left in order to exploit them even at his best, and wasn't able to consistently able to snap the bear trap shut on open countering opportunities like he did 10-15 years ago. I tend to think that Lora would pounce on those openings much of the time while not being nearly as static a target as Donaire for basic punches while being able to bait, slip and weave to avoid any incoming and quickly create counter openings in a way that wasn't really Nonitos style.
Sorry for taking so long to respond btw, and I'm aware of Happy's stamina problems, though I tend to think they were a lot more prominent in his later days. The fighter who whitewashed Zaragoza was ok over the 12 imo. He should have moved up before he faced Perez really, he was killing himself to make the weight. Staying at bantam by the time he fought Canizales is one of the worst career moves I've seen tbh. Where Inoue might be dangerous with Lora is his ability to sometimes switch from being plodding, telegraphing punches and being a bit predictable to suddenly throwing sneakier, more guard splitting shots out of the blue. He's quite good at it, though even then Lora was adept at ditching those kinds of attacks.
No worries arkid, you can take as much time as you need if you're giving us posts like that. I see something fairly similar, in that Lora would be two steps of Inoue at almost all times in the early goings, especially if Inoue is as disinterested and lax as he's been getting recently. Lora would have a field day finding him, but I do think there'd be times where Lora winds up cornered, taking some of those short, thudding shovel hooks, and likely having to fight Inoue off before getting the opportunity to get himself off the ropes and back in control of the centre. I think there'd be brief scares where Inoue looks dominant, but the vast majority of the early rounds is dominated by Lora using his height, counters, head-movement and feet to roundly out-class Inoue. Especially with the concerning flaw he has of leading with his weight forward, and chin in the air. Donaire split his jab with ease, and Lora would probably start countering with twos and threes rather than just lone cross-counters. Although, I imagine Lora would still end up taking quite a few of those jabs as Inoue is both able to hammer it in fast and long, or use it as more of a range-finder/ probe to set up his back hand. Ultimately though, my thought process is that all of this work would likely tire Lora out. He'd have to work harder than he usually did against Inoue, and Inoue is still gonna be throwing hard and fast well after Lora has started slowing. I could actually see it thematically playing out like Wood-Conlan did. Out-classed early, the body work and tenseness due to pressure leads a fighter to unravel over the late rounds. I tend to think that Lora's lack of stamina issues in the Zaragoza fight came more from being comfortable with Zaragoza's style and being able to take parts of rounds off while remaining in control. He wasn't really pushed by Zaragoza, whereas a fight with Inoue would definitely be more taxing. I'd probably take Inoue to stop Lora in the last few rounds, albeit still probably down on the cards. Is a bit of a blind faith pick as Lora is massively more proven and the overall better fighter. While I don't rate it highly in an all-time sense, the Donaire fight showed - me, at least - that Inoue is incredible hard to dissuade and his chin, heart and overall fighting spirit are extremely tough. It certainly doesn't like he's rolling over when someone says play dead. Such a shame he isn't making more of an effort with his career. He never should've skipped out on those legacy defining fights at 115, nor should he be settling for the likes of Hot n' Spicy, Aran Dipshit or Jason Moloney.
