The two big fights from Japan this weekend are in the books. Naoya “Monster” Inoue successfully defended his WBO super flyweight title with an easy win over Mexico’s Ricardo Rodriguez in three while his countryman Ryota Murata lost his biggest fight yet against Hassan N’Dam, or at least he did according to the judges.
First, the good. Japan’s elite super flyweight Naoya Inoue (13-0, 11 KOs) dominated Mexico’s overmatched contender Ricardo Rodriguez (16-4, 5 KOs) just like he was supposed to. Rodriguez came to win as he opened by immediately pressing his more talented opponent to the ropes and digging to the body, but it didn’t take more than the first minute of the bout for Monster Inoue to establish his superiority.
In the third, Inoue dropped Rodriguez with a beautifully timed left hook as the Mexican started to stick out a weak jab that never had a chance. Ricardo hit the ground on the seat of his pants with a look of physical pain on his face. The referee waved the bout off before he finished counting and that was that.
Inoue’s team is looking to bring him stateside for his next fight which is a very, very welcome development as he is one of the most gifted fighters in the sport. Hopefully he can get one of the other elite super flyweights in the ring for the bout.
Now, the ugly. Somehow Ryota Murata (12-1, 9 KOs) was robbed blind in his home country when two of the three judges scored the fight for Cameroon’s Hassan N’Dam (36-2, 21 KOs). All too often the boxing fanbase ignores the subjective reality of scoring fights and cries robbery in what was simply just a close bout. This is what happened with Rances Barthelemy and Kyril Relikh on Showtime this weekend, but it was not the case here.
After winning the first two rounds on my card with some reasonably effective boxing, I only found one more round to give N’Dam for the rest of the bout. Murata also dropped him in the fourth and staggered him into the ropes in the seventh in a moment that could have easily been scored a knockdown. Hassan N’Dam would find moments of success here and there, but not sustained enough to really win rounds.
I scored the bout 117-110 Murata behind his constant, effective pressure and cleaner, more powerful shots. To give N’Dam the fight I would have to find four rounds I gave to Murata to switch. Maybe on a rewatch I could justify one or two, but four? Impossible, yet the Panamanian and Canadian judges did more than that having the bout more than a narrow one point win for N’Dam with baffling scores of 116-11 and 115-112.
WBA president Gilberto Mendoza, who was sanctioning this fight for a bogus, supposed world title that you should completely ignore, has been publicly apologizing for the judging. He has also been insisting on a rematch. A rematch feels disappointing as Murata rather easily won the bout and I can’t imagine the second dance having any different steps, but I suppose it is an ugly necessity at this point to wipe the palate clean of the taste of robbery.
