WBSS Season 2 Opener Review

WBSS Season 2 Opener Review

By Matthew Dean 

Monsters come in all shapes and sizes. They aren’t always the physically large creatures portrayed in the movies, they sometimes appear in a smaller and often scarier form. Anyone who has ever felt the punching prowess of Naoya “The Monster” Inoue (17-0. 15KOs) will understand this concept.

With the success of the World Boxing Super Series just a week behind us, Season 2 has kicked off in triumphant form giving us a taster of what may come in the Bantamweight (118lbs) and Super Lightweight (140lbs) divisions. Inoue, defending the WBA belt he took from Britain’s Jamie McDonnell in May this year squared off against Juan Carlos Payano (20-2. 9 KOs) in his native Japan.

Payano, a former world champion from the Dominican Republic, with only 1 loss to his name was eclipsed within 70 seconds of the opening bell. From the moment the ref motioned the men to fight, Payano marched forward throwing jabs to the body. Inoue deftly moving backwards out of range to get the measure of his opponent. Inoue moves his left hand guard to parry one of Payano’s right shots, then less than 30 seconds later detonated a ramrod jab and an explosive straight right cross to the chin which ended the fight.

Payano was on his back and lying face down before the ref decided to call it off. For anyone who only watches the heavyweight fights to see the big KOs, it was a formidable demonstration of the power of the little men.

Inoue is already a 3-weight champion and thought to be one of the best fighters in the world today. Not bad considering he has only been in the pro ranks 6 years. He now waits to see who he will face in the semi final , either IBF champion Emmanuel Rodriguez (18-0-0. 12 KOs) or Jason Maloney (17-0-0. 14KOs). They are due to compete October 20th.

Whatever happens this tournament is already setting the bar very high.