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Jason Moloney believes former opponent Naoya Inoue will continue his impressive knockout run when he takes on Luis Nery, but the Australian also thinks that Nery will bring “an exciting fight to the table” on May 6.
Inoue, the Japanese superstar, will defend his undisputed junior featherweight title at the 55,000-capacity Tokyo Dome, a historic venue that hasn’t been used for boxing since Mike Tyson shockingly lost to James “Buster” Douglas on Feb. 11, 1990. Moloney himself will put his WBO bantamweight belt on the line against Yoshiki Takei on the undercard.
Inoue (26-0, 23 KOs) unified his division with a 10th-round knockout over Marlon Tapales in Tokyo on Boxing Day.
Nery (35-1, 27 KOs) will have been out of the ring for 10 months by the time he faces Inoue. The former world titleholder made short work of Froilan Saludar with a second-round stoppage in his native Mexico.
“I think it is an awesome fight,” Moloney told BoxingScene. “It’s a very exciting fight because of what Nery brings to the table. He’s not the sort of fighter that will go in there to try and survive. He’s someone who is definitely going to try and win the fight. He’s pretty wild and he’s pretty strong. He’s also got a pretty impressive knockout record – and one over in Japan against a former world champion.
“He’ll go for it. He’ll test Inoue at times, but like I have said before, nobody at 122 [pounds] is beating Inoue at the moment. I’m expecting another dominating performance from Inoue, though. I think he will stop Nery; he’s just on such a roll at the moment. He seems to be getting better and better. He looked impressive against [Stephen] Fulton and then impressive again against Tapales.”
Moloney and Inoue locked horns for the IBF and WBA bantamweight titles at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 2020, with Inoue scoring a shattering seventh-round stoppage victory.
“He’s already the undisputed champion at super bantamweight, in just two fights, which is incredible,” Moloney continued. “Nobody is beating him at this weight, but it will be exciting while it lasts. I think they will both catch each other with some good shots, but nobody has really beaten Inoue in a shootout. When you are talking about trading power punches, Inoue is going to catch him at one stage. I can tell you firsthand what it is like to catch one of them. It is not nice.
“There are limited names at that weight that can test Inoue before he moves up to featherweight. [Nery]’s a good name, he’s established and they know of him in Japan.”