Originally posted by kiaba360View Post
So he should face Pierce then. His career is stagnant. I doubt he benefited from the 10-months inactivity right before Tapales. By his own admission, he's spending too much time training with no payoff.
It doesn't necessarily even have to be Pierce level. If he's tired of training and no fight/payoff, even a string of some literal stay busy no name cans to pad his record would've done better than no action at all.
It is all spilled milk and hindsight is always easier said, but if MJ is serious about wanting Inoue and is actually confident about his skills he had more than enough time to rematch Tapales this summer, or travel to UK to fight Davies or some British name that Eddie was willing to feed to MJ. Heck, he could've even fought the likes of Toshiki Shimomachi or Kazuki Nakajima at some non-Inoue 8 or 10 round undercard in Japan just to kill time in the first half of 2024 and also get on the Japanese casual fan's radar. Both are low/borderline ranked 122 guys and Shimomachi and Nakajima already have losses in their records already plus unlike America the Japanese promoters aren't too infatuated with the Mayweather glorified holy-zero, so it wasn't impossible, plus it would've gotten Ohashi's attention at the least. Neither would've been a threat to him but throwing his name out matters.
Which is who part of me is still skeptical on if MJ really is serious about wanting Inoue smoke given his history of ducking Fulton and that he only talks big when the chance of the fight happening next is relatively low, but goes stealth crickets when there is an opportunity to appeal himself.
Fulton jumped to the chance of making his career pay by happily travelling to Japan as the unified number one champion in the division.
Tapales was next simply because he had the belts but also made absolutely damn sure he was next and Nery or whoever didn't cut in by showing up to the Fulton fight and immediately all but agreeing to a fight in Japan on the spot.
Nery was already a well hated name in Japan so he had an advantage to begin with, but to his credit(?) he played his villain role very well and continued to talk shiz but actually showed up to the fight without missing weight or popping for drugs, and actually gave a very entertaining fight to the crowd.
Goodman was a strange twist as a result but he actually showed up to Nery fight and made the best of his spotlight, and is actually seemingly realistic opponent for December.
Doheny was a let down as an opponent level but he basically decided to not let pride get in the way and being the helpful and willing to be used in any way versitile good neighbor which earned him enough favor points to get a thank you cash bag when the lucky star came by.
MJ was crickets after the Gonzalez fight while Nery (and Goodman) were answering interviews, crickets leading up to Nery fight (why not claim at the winner of Inoue/Nery?), didn't even bother to show up to the fight unlike Goodman (not like he was too busy prepping for a fight or anything), crickets after Goodman's bravado statement, crickets during the fallout debacle, crickets when Doheny was essentially being reported as a semi-accepted fact...and finally the WBA idiocy occurs when the schedule is already all but set and only after Ohashi refuses purse bid then he starts talking big. Oh but he still doesn't show up to jump into the ring after Doheny fight while knowing Goodman did post-Nery. Last but not least, he basically takes Goodman's speech and repeats the whole "fight me or vacate" while using Canelo's IBF strippage as an example, but ignores the fact that Goodman is none other than the mandatory for the said IBF and basically b!tching that Inoue is fighting a mandatory over him despite MJ being a mandatory...the more I type out in words the more dumber it sounds.
Frankly, the main reason I want MJ to be Inoue's opponent for April/May next year is simply because he's the only reasonable opponent left for Inoue to fight in Vegas, assuming Goodman is December and Nakatani would be obviously made for Tokyo Dome II. I don't see him actually winning against Inoue, but given the alternate availability being Casimero or Picasso, MJ is the best of the leftovers despite his inactiveness. Ironically with MJ's inactivity, Doheny's age, Fulton and Nery having moved to 126, Tapales who is currently back fighting and ranked up at WBC2, WBA4, and IBF3 actually has a realistic chance at getting a belt again before MJ does (after Inoue vacates and goes to 126 later next year).
