Inoue vs Cardenas-The Epilogue: Has ‘The Monster’ Been Exposed?

Sure, Inoue got caught by Nery, but he was clearly not hurt. His position as a contender for the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world was not diminished in the slightest. His dominant KO wins over TJ Doherty and Ye Joon Kim left him and Terence Crawford as either 1 or 1A in the argument over the best fighter in the world. Inoue looked all but invincible in his weight class.

A Cinco De Mayo Thriller

But something happened last night against Cardenas, who was making his title fight debut at 26-1 with 14 knockouts. While Cardenas has a reputation as a tough customer, he entered the ring as a -10,000 underdog against “The Monster” Inoue. Cardenas wasn’t taken seriously by fans, commentators, or those who place bets online or at windows. Cardenas did not get the memo. After a competitive first round, Cardenas lit up Inoue with a left hook square to the middle of the champion’s face, putting Inoue’s backside on the canvas for just the second time in his career.

Unlike the knockdown he suffered against Nery, Inoue was genuinely hurt. For the first time, Inoue was dazed by his opponent in a way we had never seen before. As he turned to the referee, he stayed on his knees until the count of five, and you could practically hear the bees buzzing in his brain by the look on his face. Inoue was in trouble. Luckily, there was less than a minute left in the round, and Inoue was able to make it to the bell.

As Inoue’s corner went to work on their charge, you could tell that “The Monster” needed every second of that one-minute break. For the first time in my memory, Inoue looked, dare I say it, “human”? To Inoue’s credit, he shook off the buzz and outlanded Cardenas 29-9 in the third round. Slowly but surely, Inoue began to take over the fight, hurting Cardenas in the seventh, and finishing him off with an electric combination of blows against his game opponent in the far-left corner of the ring. Inoue proved he could adjust to Cardenas, and that left hook that floored him never found his face again. And that was a very good thing for Inoue, because until the seventh, you still could feel that Cardenas had a shot.

Yes, Cardenas was not winning rounds, but that left hook wasn’t missing by much. He had exposed a weakness in Inoue–when “The Monster” gets cracked, he comes back twice as hard. Most of Inoue’s defense is based on his offense (again, all due credit for adjusting to leaving himself open for the left hook), but Cardenas, a fine but not elite fighter (ranked tenth by the WBO going into the fight), made the fight a real thriller.

Inoue has long carried an air of mystery to go along with his sparkling 30-0 record with 27 KOs. All those fights in Japan went largely unseen by American audiences due to the 14-hour time difference from the West Coast and an 11-hour difference on the eastern seaboard. Of course, the die-hards lost sleep to watch those fights live; some watched replays or highlights after the fact. The lack of easy accessibility to Inoue in the United States only added to his legend as word of each Inoue beating of quality opponents took wing. But last night, “The Monster,” who should still be in the P4P discussion, no longer looks invincible. Inoue is only 32, but 32 is not particularly young for a boxer. Is it possible that Inoue is reaching the tail end of his prime?

Inoue has been a fighter that most other pugilists have sought to avoid, but after the genuinely dangerous position Cardenas put the champion in last night, that may just change. I know the 27-year-old Junto Nakatani (he of the remarkably similar Inoue-esque record of 30-0 with 23 KOs) has a fight coming up in June with the undefeated Ryosuke Nishida, but assuming Nakatani handles his business this summer, he and his team should be shouting after Inoue from the top of their lungs (Editor’s note: Inoue & Nakatani have a handshake agreement for a fight in 2026). Inoue might just be there to be had, and Nakatani may be the man to have him.