Naoya Inoue stops Nonito Donaire in second fight and calls for Paul Butler fight next

Naoya Inoue brutally knocked out Nonito Donaire in the second round of their rematch to claim the WBC, IBF, WBA ‘super’, and Ring Magazine bantamweight world titles. Inoue took very little time at all to beat Donaire for the second time in his career.

The opening round of the fight started with a feeling-out process between both fighters, which exploded into life in the final twenty seconds of the round as Inoue dropped Donaire with a sneaky right hand. Visibly wobbled Donaire made his way back to his stool, but was not let off lightly by his adversary. In the second round, Donaire was quickly hurt again with a left hook from Inoue. Instantly smelling blood, Inoue ramped up the intensity and began to land at will, before eventually knocking out the Filipino legend with another left hook.

Addressing the fans after the contest a stoic Inoue said: “Thank you so much everyone I did it. Two years and seven months ago I fought against Nonito Donaire in the WSS final and here at the same venue, you give me the power.

“At the very first round, I received a left hook from Nonito and that punch woke me up and I had to stay focused for the rest of the fight. Without Nonito I cannot do this, thank you so much Nonito for doing this.”

Undercard results:

Takuma Inoue def. Gakuya Furuhashi via UD

Andy Hiraoka def. Shun Akaiwa via sixth round TKO

Toshiya Ishii def. Hikaru Fukunaga via sixth round TKO

Kanamu Sakama def. Fuki Ishigaki via second round TKO

Kota Matsuno def. Minori Okamura via UD

Chihiro Iwashita def. Seiryu Yamana via UD