JAPAN’S NAOYA INOUE became the first undisputed bantamweight world champion in half a century on Tuesday after stopping England’s Paul Butler in the 11th round in Tokyo.
The unbeaten Inoue, nicknamed ‘Monster’, finally floored a defensive Butler with a flurry of body shots after dominating the bout.
Inoue took his record to 24-0 with 21 knockouts, and added Butler’s WBO title to his own WBC, WBA and IBF belts. Today’s clash was his 19th world-championship fight — and he has won 17 of them inside the distance.
‘Monster’ becomes the first undisputed bantamweight world champion since Panama’s Enrique Pinder in 1972.
He also becomes only the ninth male undisputed world champion in boxing’s four-belt era — the first ever from Asia — and is also the the first bantamweight fighter to hold all four recognised titles.
Inoue has long set his sights on unifying the 118-pound titles and has said he intends to move up to super-bantamweight (122lbs) after accomplishing his mission.
The 29-year-old started in characteristically ferocious fashion against Butler, landing several big shots in the opening round.
He unleashed a volley of body shots in the second, Butler barely able to return fire with Inoue in full control.
Inoue continued to punish the Englishman through the early rounds, connecting with a series of punches after trapping him in the corner on two occasions.
Butler drew deeper into his defensive shell as the match wore on and Inoue grew frustrated as he tried to coax him into launching an attack.
But the Japanese fighter continued to inflict damage and finally floored him one minute and nine seconds into the 11th round.
Inoue joins an exclusive club of undisputed world champions in the modern boxing era.
The eight other men to have achieved the feat are Bernard Hopkins (middleweight), Jermain Taylor (middleweight), Terence Crawford (light-welterweight), Oleksandr Usyk (cruiserweight), Josh Taylor (light-welterweight), Saul Alvarez (super-middleweight), Jermell Charlo (light-middleweight) and Devin Haney (lightweight).
Ireland’s world lightweight champion Katie Taylor is one of six female boxers to have held all four major titles along with Cecelia Braekhus (welterweight), Claressa Shields (light-middleweight and middleweight), Jessica McCaskill (welterweight), Franchón Crews-Dezurn (super-middleweight) and Chantelle Cameron (light-welterweight).
Inoue became the first Japanese boxer to top Ring Magazine’s prestigious pound-for-pound rankings as the best fighter across all weight divisions earlier this year.
That accolade came after he had demolished Filipino veteran Nonito Donaire inside two rounds of their fight-of-the-year rematch in June.
Butler, who was fighting away from home for the first time, saw his record drop to 34-3 (18KOs).
