Naoya Inoue knocks out Paul Butler to defend world bantamweight titles

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

Japanese boxing superstar Naoya Inoue continued his magical run in the sport after stopping English fighter Paul Butler in the 11^th round of their world bantamweight clash last December 13, 2022.

With 2:05 remaining in the 11^th round of the blockbuster fight, Inoue cornered Butler on the right side of the ring and unleashed a flurry of combinations that sent the English warrior down.

Inoue set his punches up with a basic left-right jab combination and later followed it up with two punches to the head and a vicious body shot.

After the five seconds of madness sequence, Butler went down and failed to get up which forced the match referee to stop the fight in favor of the undefeated Japanese boxer.

It was all Inoue from the get-go as the hard-hitting fighter sized up Butler with his slick jabs that penetrated at will.

Despite Butler’s improved guard defense at the start of the middle rounds, Inoue still found a way to score points after going to the body.

Aside from his effective body punches, Inoue also started to unload his deadly uppercuts that wobbled Butler three times from rounds six-eight.

Butler had his moment during Round 9 after hitting Inoue with three-straight punches but the Japanese champion came right back with a double-jab combination.

Inoue then sensed blood soon as the 11^th round bell rang. After fainting his big left hooks to set up his right uppercut, the top bantamweight fighter of the world played around with his left straights that disrupted Butler’s flow of offense.

With the huge win, Inoue retained his Ring, International Boxing Federation (IBF), World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Organization (WBO), and World Boxing Council (WBC) bantamweight championship belts.