By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
It was a brutal outing for rising Filipino boxing star Michael Dasmariñas.
Going up against Naoya Inoue, the Filipino pug absorbed several shots to the liver that ended his bantamweight supremacy campaign after getting knocked out in the third round.
It was all Inoue from the start of the bell as the Japanese “Monster” just kept the pressure and pace against Dasmariñas.
Meanwhile, Dasmariñas was able to connect on some polished one-two combinations from the mid-section to the head that helped him pile up some points.
Dasmariñas would look to continue his striking attempts and slug it out with Inoue but things swung the Japanese boxer’s way in the second round.
Backed against the ropes, the defending Dasmariñas was overwhelmed with a barrage of punches that landed last in his liver section and absorbed his first knockdown of the match.
The Filipino survived the next one minute of the second round but things went worse in the third when Inoue displayed the same strategy.
Inoue patiently waited for another opening in Dasmariñas’ abdomen and threw another hammer that forced the referee to stop the fight at 38 seconds in the third round.
With the victory, Inoue retained his WBA, IBF, and Ring Magazine’s bantamweight belts to keep his record untainted in 21 fights.
