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Can Murodjon Akhmadaliev expose Naoya Inoue's one weakness?
Naoya Inoue will make the fifth defence of his undisputed super bantamweight titles this weekend against Murodjon Akhmadaliev in Japan.
The Japanese pound-for-pound star, now a two-weight undisputed champion, has dispatched the best in both divisions he has conquered and has looked near invincible along the way, recording 27 knockouts in 30 wins, a rarity at such a light weight.
But in Akhmadaliev, he is coming up against a fighter who near equals him in power and explosivity, with 11 knockouts in 14 wins and only one blemish on his record – a tight split decision against Marlon Tapales.
A win against the hard-hitting Uzbek could be the key to unlock even bigger fights in the near future for Inoue, like a Japanese super-fight against Junto Nakatani and a foray into the featherweight division to take on Britain's Nick Ball.
But despite looking unbeatable, there have been a couple of warning scenes for Inoue on his way to super bantamweight domination. In two of his last four fights, he has had to overcome early knockdowns to claim victory against Luis Nery and Ramon Cardenas.
So what is this well-hidden potential weakness of Inoue that Akhmadaliev could look to exploit on Sunday?
PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images
Inoue vs Nery
In May 2024, Inoue made the first defence of his undisputed super bantamweight titles against Luis Nery in Tokyo and suffered a shock knockdown in the first round that stunned the boxing world – the first time he had been down in his career.
Nery failed to capitalise on this early advantage, and Inoue eventually ran through him - finishing the fight in the sixth round.
But the knockdown made ‘The Monster’ look human for the first time in his career as he got caught with a scything left hand from Nery in close that sent him spiralling to the canvas.
It occurred just as Inoue looked to readjust his feet coming off the ropes, and Nery shot in with a 1-2 combination. Due to his southpaw stance, their legs got tangled, which forced Inoue to hold his feet.
Inoue shoved Nery back in an attempt to untangle them, but he held firm, and Inoue responded with an impressive left uppercut that landed flush on the inside. But in doing so, he popped his chin up in the air, and his protecting right hand did not follow.
The southpaw Nery’s lead leg remained on the outside of Inoue’s as the Japanese fighter pivoted towards the powerful left hand of Nery, who unleashed his back hand from close range, flooring the Japanese fighter.
In real time, it looks like a lucky shot on the inside, but it is actually a smart punch from Nery on Inoue, who had lost focus momentarily, dropping his guard as he threw his left hand, a common but fatal mistake for a boxer to make at close range.
A one-time occurrence can be written off as a lapse in concentration, but Inoue was susceptible to this during his time in the bantamweight division, and he fell victim to a similar shot two fights later.
Inoue vs Cardenas
Almost exactly a year later, Inoue was once again fulfilling his duties as champion and defending his undisputed titles against another Mexican – Ramon Cardenas.
Cardenas was a slick boxer with impressive defensive nuance and footwork, able to switch stances and punch from unorthodox angles, something Inoue had yet to encounter at super bantamweight.
Inoue spent the first round trying to figure out Cardenas, and by the second round, he had, as he does so well, begun to methodically hunt his man down, moving him from rope to rope.
In the dying seconds of the round, Cardenas found himself on the ropes and bravely absorbed a volley of four punches from Inoue before pivoting away from the ropes.
A perhaps overexcited Inoue, rather than cutting off the ring and exercising patience before pouncing on his man again, followed Cardenas’s line, and the orthodox Cardenas pulled off a masterful switch of stance, darting back to his right and landing an overhand left as he moved, which caught Inoue completely square, putting him on the seat of his shorts.
Inoue’s eagerness to hunt his man down and get a knockout opened up an opportunity for Cardenas. As Inoue stepped in to throw a follow-up left hook, he once again dropped his right hand below the line of his chin.
Cardenas dipped under the left hook and sank the left hand in the gap left by the undisputed champion’s right hand.
It was a masterful piece of boxing by Cardenas, but it was an opportunity created by Inoue’s bad habits.
Interestingly, if you put two images of the exact moment the shot landed on Inoue against Nery and Cardenas, the images are eerily similar
Their foot and head placements are identical. For Inoue, it’s the same story – his head is high and his right hand sits below his jawline, wide open for attack.
What does this mean for Akhmadaliev?
The Uzbek is a southpaw, so this immediately means that he is able to access the appropriate angle to land the shot that has proved so problematic for Inoue recently.
He also has very fast feet and likes to use the classic southpaw trick of placing the lead leg on the outside of the opposing orthodox fighters', which is exactly where he needs to be.
But to be able to unlock the potentially fight-ending shot, he needs to be able to bait Inoue into throwing a left hand so that his right hand will drop from protecting his chin.
Being close enough should not prove a problem for Akhmadaliev as this is where he prefers to fight, throwing explosive combinations between head and body – so if he can move into range as we saw Nery and Cardenas do, and bait a counter left hook by working down to the body, then he will be able to detonate the left hand.
The key to this is, of course, getting Inoue on the floor, but almost as important is being able to keep him there. The two previous examples are of Inoue being dropped, but ‘The Monster’ is not kept down easily, and on both occasions got back to his feet to knock his opponents out.
If the Uzbek can take advantage of this small but cascading error from Inoue, then he must capitalise immediately and apply the pressure. If he allows him back into the fight, then the success could be short-lived.
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