Naoya Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs) had to deal with adversity tonight, getting knocked down in round two by Ramon Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs), and needing to come back strong to end the fight by an eighth-round TKO on Sunday night in Las Vegas.

Inoue came back to overwhelm Cardenas with power shots in the eighth round to get a referee stoppage. It was questionable whether the referee, Thomas Taylor, did the right thing in halting it because Cardenas was still fighting back. The time of the stoppage was at 0:45 of the eighth.

The underdog Cardenas, 29, surprised Inoue in round two, catching him with a powerful left hook on the chin to put him down. Inoue stayed down until the count of seven before getting back to his feet. He looked hurt by the shots and was lucky that Cardenas didn’t catch him with any similar shots for the remainder of the fight.

Inoue did a good job of recovering from the second-round knockdown, making adjustments and then coming back to get the victory by knocking out Cardenas in the seventh. The challenger Cardenas put in a great effort, showing power in his left hook that was a nightmare for Naoya tonight. The way that Cardenas was throwing it, you could tell that he was going to catch Inoue with it at some point and either knock him down or stop him.

The knockdown saved what pretty much had been a card filled with mismatches involving the A-side fighters destroying their overmatched opponents. Cardenas, dropping Inoue, 32, got fans excited in the crowd. It was one of Inoue’s most drama-filled fights since his first bout against Nonito Donaire in 2019.

Rafael Espinoza Stops Edward Vazquez

WBO featherweight champion Rafael Espinoza (27-0, 23 KOs) knocked out Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round of a non-competitive fight. The lanky 6’1″ Espinoza took advantage of Vazquez’s lack of power and size to unload nonstop punches on him, forcing him to take withering punishment to land anything.

Vazquez was close to being stopped in round five when Espinoza hit him with a barrage of shots when he had him against the ropes. Espinoza finished the job in the seventh, backing the battered and bruised Vazquez up, and unleashed a flurry of shots that caused the referee to wave it off. The time was at 1:47 of round seven.