Via Barry Holbrook: WBO bantamweight champion Paul Butler says he will welcome a bout with IBF/WBA/WBC champion Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue next to claim the undisputed 118 lb championship following a TKO win in the Japanese superstar’s second round against WBC champion Nonito Donaire on Tuesday night in Saitama, Japan.
Granted, it will be an uphill battle for the 33-year-old Butler against Inoue, but he has the skill, maturity and toughness to win.
If Butler can get Inoue into deeper waters, he can take advantage of the facial weaknesses he showed in his first fight with Nonito Donaire.
Inoue (23-0, 2o KO) said shortly after his fight with Donaire (42-7, 28 KO) that he wanted to fight for the undisputed championship in the next bantamweight division.
If Inoue can’t get that fight, he says he’ll move up to 122 to start campaigning as a bantamweight superman.
Butler (34-2, 15 KOs) just won a 12-round unanimous decision against Jonas Sultan in April last year.
“I hope he wants to try and be undisputed. That would be a great opportunity for me. It is an absolute honor to step into the ring with a great pound of pound,” Paul Butler told Secondsout about his preference for going up against the next IBF/WBA/WBC bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue for the undisputed 118-lb championship.
“Joe [Gallagher] will come up with a game plan. It will be a difficult task, but it is one I am willing to take on. ”
“I think he’s brilliant,” Butler said of Inoue’s second-round knockout win over Nonito Donaire on Tuesday night. “Obviously he watched a lot of the first fights where Nonito gave him a hard time a few times, but he went back and did his homework.
“Personally, I think, he will get him in seven innings, but he nailed him in the first round. In the second round, he jumped out and jumped all over. Like a good champion, he finished him off.
“I think if he had more time in that inning he would have done him in the first round,” Butler said of Inoue. “I don’t think he recovered, and he was jumping all over him.
“I think the hook on the left is what swapped Nonito’s leg. I think the participant should have jumped in then. He gave him too many chances. I think he was injured on the left hook, and then that left hook hit the ground and staggered his leg. I think the refs should have jumped in there, I think.
“He is [Naoya] scared with both hands. You have to save Donaire there. He is [Donaire] There have been two wins since then [loss to Inoue in the World Boxing Super Series in November 2019], and he looks very good. So I think that’s how good Inoue is.
“Look at his size compared to the World Boxing Super Championship three years ago. He looks huge tonight. Butler said.
