Unified bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue has had his house burgled just hours after his knockout win over Nonito Donaire. According to Japanese media, he had a luxury bag stolen from his home while he was fighting at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
In a recent tweet, the boxer took to social media to let fans know about the robbery and admitted that it was ‘bad news’ on a ‘happy day’. “I saw the news,” he tweeted in his native Japenese. “But on a happy day, it’s a bad story, isn’t it? Everyone should be careful.”
Inoue’s rematch with Donaire on Tuesday ended in a second-round knockout victory for the Japanese boxer. The pair had fought to a close decision in their original contest back in 2019 which was voted as that year’s best fight by Ring Magazine.
However, this time the now 39-year-old Donaire was unable to absorb the punishment dished out by his adversary. The Filipino boxer was saved by the bell in the first round after a sneaky right hand dropped him in the final seconds of the opener. Then, sensing he had his man hurt Inoue quickly capitalised early in the second, landing a perfectly timed left hook to finish the contest.
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The victory means that Inoue goes one step closer to becoming the undisputed bantamweight world champion, adding the WBC belt to his collection which includes the WBA ‘super’, IBF, and Ring Magazine belts. Now, all that is left to secure his undisputed status is the WBO belt held by Englishman Paul Butler. After stopping Donaire, Inoue called for this fight.
“My aim is to be the undisputed champion if I can do that within the year of 2022 I would love to stay in this division, but if I can’t I am capable of raising my division and fighting for the upper division [super-bantamweight],” he said during his post-fight interview.
In a humble speech, Inoue continued to show the class expected of the unified champion as he thanked Donaire for elevating his boxing career.
He 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.”