STEVE’S SOAPBOX
A RARE SIGHTING By Steve Kim
Wherever he fights, The Monster brings a heavy chest of treasure with him.
to make some concessions to make this trip to the U.S. a reality. “I mean, it’s not a gimme,” admitted Bob Arum, the founder of Top Rank. “But MGM really stood up to the plate and bought a block: $2.5 million worth of tickets for its customers. So we were able to piece it together. But yeah, [Inoue] makes a lot of money in Japan, and so obviously we had to come close or match it to make it palatable for him to fight in the United States.” The Cardenas fight will have been Inoue’s fourth outing in the U.S. His first was as a supporting bout on the inaugural “SuperFly” series on HBO in 2017, when he stopped Antonio Nieves in six rounds at the StubHub Center (now Dignity Health Sports Park) in
B y the time you’ve cracked open this edition of The Ring Magazine, Naoya Inoue will likely have another victory on his resume, and probably another KO, at the expense of Ramon Cardenas. Coming into their May 4 matchup, oddsmakers listed the undisputed junior featherweight champion as a 50-to-1 favorite. So yeah, “The Monster” from Japan wasn’t exactly facing Godzilla here. But what made this date notable is
that it marked Inoue’s return to America after a four-year gap. This particular event, which was promoted by Top Rank, was set to take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It wasn’t Inoue’s first appearance in the United States, but there is a chance that it was the last opportunity for U.S.-based fans to see him live. While most foreign boxers come to America for the money, Inoue, who regularly scores eight-figure paydays in his home country, most likely had
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