RESPECT in a fight is something of a balancing act and, like a jab, it must be measured. Throw a jab too close to one’s opponent and its impact is reduced, yet throw it too far out and you penetrate only fresh air. Similarly, when it comes to respect, a boxer who shows too much for an opponent tends to give ground and relinquish control, while a boxer who displays not enough is liable to carelessness, recklessness, and often destined to finish the night on their back.
For Luis Nery, a Mexican super-bantamweight never short on confidence, an ability to hit the sweet spot in this regard will soon become imperative. Find it and there’s every chance his confidence, as well as punch power and southpaw stance, could be the very ingredients required to do what no man has done before; that is, topple the formidable Naoya Inoue in Tokyo, Japan. Get it wrong, however, and show either too much respect or not enough, and it’s more likely that Nery goes the way of Inoue’s previous opponents, his surrendering defined either by a vicious knockout or a desperate – and doubtless futile – attempt to survive.
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