Naoya Inoue suffered the first knockdown of his illustrious career in the opening round but rebounded to floor Luis Nery three times en route to a Round 6 KO victory to retain his undisputed junior featherweight championship on Monday in Tokyo.
There were 44,000-plus on hand for the first boxing event at the famed Tokyo Dome since the Mike Tyson-Buster Douglas heavyweight title shocker in February 1990.
And those fans witnessed another surprise when Mexico's Nery dropped the Japanese star with a counter right hand in Round 1.
Inoue, the -1600 favorite per ESPN BET, smirked and breathed a sigh of relief as he walked back to his corner. «How did you like that big surprise in the first round?» the 31-year-old asked the crowd in Japanese. "… That happening gave me motivation and I was so focused until the end of the fight." The following round, Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs) returned the favor with a counter left hook, the fifth knockdown of Nery's career.