Want a bold takeaway from the three Cinco de Mayo fight cards?

How about declaring there’s a new “face of boxing”, with Japan’s Naoya Inoue riding his sensational stoppage triumph to muscle past the diminishing Saul “Canelo” Alvarez?

Like Mexico’s Alvarez, who’ll turn 35 before his next fight, Inoue, 32, is a four-division champion with global appeal.

Unlike Alvarez, who extended his stretch of consecutive one-sided matches to six with a historic low punch count in an undisputed super-middleweight title victory over William Scull in Saudi Arabia that was universally panned, Inoue 30-0 (27 KOs) has displayed an eagerness to head into the teeth of his junior-featherweight opposition, with the former unified champion Murodjon “MJ” Akhmadaliev and the bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani lying in wait.

Consider the contrast of the two main events.

While Alvarez, 63-2-2 (39 KOs), was chided for selecting the elusive Cuban and fighting with little mobility in a bout that set the 40-year-old CompuBox’s new record for least punches in a 12-round fight, Inoue got off the canvas from a wicked, second-round left hand from his challenger Ramon Cardenas and stopped him in the eighth after a remarkable display of volume punching.

On Tuesday’s episode of ProBox TV’s “BoxingScene Today”, analyst and former 140lbs champion Chris Algieri told of how his ringside position calling the fight for the international broadcast positioned him next to Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz.

“When [Inoue] throws that right hand, let that motherfucking left hook go,” Diaz told Cardenas before the second.

When it happened late in the second round, “Inoue’s on the mat, on his knees”.

Conquering adversity sharply lifts boxing reputations, and Inoue’s two-fisted response to the drama in his first US main event before a non-COVID era crowd did exactly that.

“Inoue’s ability to find that range and timing and make that left miss – tightening up his defense… it’s ridiculous how good he is,” Algieri said.

In the post-fight press conference, Cardenas hailed Inoue for his volume punching, which culminated in both a seventh-round knockdown and the finish.

“Entertainment value matters, and [Inoue’s reputation as an all-action fighter] was cemented,” the former welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi said on BoxingScene Today. “He might have some defensive liabilities, but the other guys on the pound-for-pound list [heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and four-division champion Terence Crawford] are dinosaurs who’ll be gone soon.

“Like it or not, Naoya Inoue is going to be number one. He’s a bona fide guy; exciting to watch and he can carry the torch.”

There was also an opening for Ryan Garcia to elevate his place in the “face of boxing” conversation by winning his first belt on Friday, but the popular fighter, returning from a one-year drugs ban, was upset by new WBA secondary welterweight champion Rolando “Rolly” Romero.

Malignaggi suggested delays in the production from Turki Alalshikh’s promotion to have Garcia enter in a “Batmobile” may have contributed to his distracted showing.

Alvarez’s showing was his own doing, said Malignaggi – embracing a dull fighter of little regard, and vacating his typical Cinco de Mayo Las Vegas show to bank Saudi Arabia promotional funds when he should have embraced the prior obligation to meet the previous best fighters in the division, David Benavidez and David Morrell.

“They both would’ve mopped the floor with this guy, and remained hungry to make the big fights,” Malignaggi said. “Instead, we’ve gotten this for the past bunch of years.”

Algieri said the lone positive to Alvarez’s flat performance is that it’s driving more to believe that the 2023 welterweight champion Crawford can ascend three divisions up to 168lbs with only one fight in between, and upset Alvarez on September 12 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

“How many people are changing their picks for September?” Algieri asked. “How many people are now thinking it’s going to be a good fight? The build-up to this fight will be heightened. That’s the only silver lining to [Alvarez’s] boring-ass fight.”

Malignaggi calls the Crawford bout a “lose-lose” proposition for Alvarez in that he either gets defeated by Crawford 41-0 (31 KOs) or beats an older foe – at age 37 – who had to move up so significantly in weight.

Meanwhile, the most unforeseen rise in stock belonged to Cardenas, 26-2, who fought on ProBox TV earlier in 2025 and is next being pointed towards the four Japanese bantamweight champions following his gritty showing versus Inoue.

“He didn’t just shine in the moment, he kicked the door in,” Algieri said. “This is his entrance, not his peak.”

Malignaggi agreed.

“I’d be shocked if Ramon Cardenas does not become a world champion,” he said. “He’s a kid from Texas who fights his ass off.”

Something the former face of boxing did not do.