Naoya Inoue Vs Adrian Hernandez

When a young prospect bursts on to the scene we tend to follow their rise through the ranks with the knowledge that we could be in with a long wait until we see them fight someone with a pulse. That was never the case with Naoya Inoue who seemed to be on the fast track to the top from the day he fought his public test bout with Masayuki Kuroda.

In just his 6th bout Inoue stepped up to the plate and took on a man many viewed as the best Light Flyweight champion, WBC champion Adrian Hernandez. Hernandez was 2-time world champion who had been enjoying an 18 month reign going into this bout and had gone 8-1 in world title bouts. None of that helped him however against Inoue who showed that his skills were legit.

The fight started excellently for Inoue who took the first 3 rounds with no problems and actually bust the eye of Hernandez who looked less like the champion and more like a novice pro. It wasn't until round 5 that Inoue looked under any sort of pressure but even then fought fire with fire and stood his ground as a desperate Hernandez put up a valiant challenge. By then though it really was the last act of a man who could feel his title slipping and in the following round Inoue showed that he has world class power by stopping Hernandez late in round 6. It wasn't just that Inoue had stopped Hernandez but had actually made Hernandez quit that was arguably the most impressive part of the fight.

With the win Hernandez became the quickest Japanese fighter to ever win a world title, just 6 fights, breaking the previous record of 7 fights held by Kazuto Ioka. This lead to many fans talking up an Ioka/Inoue fight though at the moment that looks some way from happening.

2014-04-06 Naoya Inoue vs Adrian Hernandez by LysAlexandrov