IT was fast and furious.
Naoya Inoue again lived up to his moniker as ‘The Monster’ after destroying mandatory challenger Michael Dasmarinas in just three rounds to retain his world bantamweight titles on Sunday (Manila time) at the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas.
The 28-year-old Inoue punished Dasmarinas with superb body shots throughout the fight, including the coup de grace in the third round from which the Filipino never got to recover from.
The fight mercifully ended at the 2:45 mark of Round Three.
Inoue improved his perfect record to 21-0 (18 KOs) and completed the job before a huge weekend crowd that included Filipino world bantamweight title holders Nonito Donaire Jr and Johnriel Casimero.
The unbeaten Japanese retained his International Boxing Federation (IBF) and World Boxing Association (WBA) title belts.
“Against the number one ranked fighter, Dasmarinas, I think I had a great win,” said Inoue. “I prepare myself to knock them out, whether with a head shot of a body shot. I came prepared and to get a win by knockout is good for me.”
Dasmarinas fell to 30-3-1 (20 KOs) as he lost his first attempt at a world title after earning the right to face Inoue when he beat Kenny Demecillo by unanimous decision in their title eliminator bout two years ago.
Everything appeared over for the Filipino challenger when Inoue connected on a left hook to the liver that sent Dasmarinas down for the first time a minute remaining in the second round.
The Japanese champion again connected on the same body shot that knocked Dasmarinas down anew in the third round, the challenger obviously wincing in pain as he tried to beat the 10-count of referee Russell Mora.
He failed to get up the third time as the referee finally waived off the bout as Inoue raised his left arm to acknowledge the cheers of the crowd.
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