Naoya Inoue won the competition battle. But Ramon Cardenas won the perception war. The rugged but comprehensively unheralded Texan scored a shocking knockdown in the second round and gave nearly as good as he got for several more before finally crumbling under the pound-for-pound star’s perpetual wrath in Round 8 of a scheduled 12.

Following a weekend of gimmicks — led by a VIP-attended card in Times Square and a sparsely-attended breakfast fight in Saudi Arabia — Naoya Inoue and Ramon Cardenas reminded boxing what makes its sport so special.

The boxing world set its eyes on Top Rank and Naoya Inoue on Sunday, hoping they could come through after two disappointing nights on what was once hyped as one