Bruce Carrington believes he will eventually beat Japanese star Naoya Inoue when he moves up to featherweight. Carrington, 27, says he doesn’t want to get too involved in talking about fighting the 31-year-old Inoue because he’s taking his “sweet time coming up to featherweight.”
Inoue’s Reluctance to Move Up
Carrington has the right attitude because Inoue doesn’t look like he’ll ever move up to featherweight. He’s got a good thing going fighting at 122 against old guys like TJ Doheny and weak punchers like Sam Goodman.
Some fans feel that Inoue is afraid to move up to 126 because there are too many dangerous sharks in the division. Inoue is enjoying himself in the safety of the super bantamweight division. In that weight class, Inoue can theoretically stay on top into his 40s, because fighters aren’t interested in that division.
They hit a lot harder than the fighters at 122, and they possess a lot more talent. It’s safer for Inoue to stay at super bantamweight and be the master of his little ship and thrive.
The unbeaten 126-lb contender Carrington (12-0, 8 KOs) says he spotted “holes” in ‘Monster’ Inoue’s game in his fight in the successful title defense of his undisputed super bantamweight championship earlier this week against TJ Doheny on September 3rd in Tokyo, Japan.
Inoue (28-0, 25 KOs) was getting hit a lot by the 37-year-old Doheny and looked timid in the first four rounds until coming on to score an injury-related seventh-round stoppage at the Ariake Arena.
Doheny’s back gave out on him, which is unsurprising given his age. He looked a lot older than 37. If I didn’t know Doheny’s age, I would have pegged him for being 45 years old. Inoue sure knows how to pick them, doesn’t he?
Carrington Believes He Can “Take Down” Inoue
“There’s holes in the man’s game. Granted, he’s a great fighter, but I do believe I’ll be the one to take him down,” said Bruce Carrington to the Secondsout YouTube channel, talking about Naoya Inoue.
Carrington is right. Doheny exposed all kinds of holes in Inoue’s game in that fight. These are just a few of them:
- Only throws single shots: Inoue is incapable of throwing combinations.
- Timid when attacked: Naoya can sure dish it out, but he looks frightened when under attack, forced to take return fire.
- Losing hand speed: The ‘Monster’ Inoue isn’t as fast as he once was, and it’s going to get worse as he ages. If Inoue sticks around for another couple of years, he’ll be fish food even for the low-level fighters at 122.
“I would love to have a fight with Inoue out here in the U.S. If it has to be Japan, whatever. I don’t want to get too much into the Inoue talk because he’s taking his sweet time coming up to the featherweight division. He has a lot of business to take care of [at super bantamweight],” said Carrington.
“So, when the time comes, the time comes. I don’t want to be seen as this guy that is popular because of Inoue. I want to be known as Bruce Carrington and be my own star and focus on the featherweight champions in front of me right now.”
If I were Carrington, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for Inoue to move up to 126. If Naoya were going to make the move, he would have done it already after his win over the washed Luis Nery.
Instead, Inoue picked out the grizzled veteran TJ Doheny, who had lost three out of his last seven fights, with all his wins coming against non-contenders.
“I’m not really focused on Inoue at the moment. So whenever the time comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, I’ll be fine,” said Carrington.
Inoue says he wants to fight #1 WBO Sam Goodman in December and then potentially face Junto Nakatani when he moves up from bantamweight. But here’s the catch: Inoue wants Nakatani (28-0, 21 KOs) to fight a unification match against his brother, WBA 118-lb champion Takuma Inoue (20-1, 5 KOs).
Some see this condition that Inoue is setting to make the fight between him and Nakatani bigger in 2025. I don’t see it that way. I believe Inoue is helping out his brother, Takuma, who is an average fighter who won his vacant WBA title bantamweight title by beating 41-year-old Liborio Solis.
Takuma would get a nice payday by fighting Nakatani. So, Inoue would be helping his bro out by forcing Nakatani to fight him first before he faces him.
Inoue’s Conditions for Fighting Nakatani
“Before he moves up to fight me, he will have to fight my brother Takuma,” said Naoya Inoue at the post-fight press conference after his win over TJ Doheny, letting the media know that WBC 118-lb champion Junto Nakatani must fight a unification match at bantamweight against his brother, WBA champ Takuma Inoue before he’d agree to fight him at 122.
“That’s not easy because Takuma will be a very tough opponent and a thick wall for Nakatani,” said Inoue.
