Carlquincy

Member
Jul 25, 2022
1,314
I'm a very casual follower of both sports. Apparently 2 Japanese monsters have emerged from each domain. I'm just wondering :
1) who's more popular (worldwide and in Japan)
2) who's more dominant in their respective sport
 

RoninRay

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,636
Ohtani is dominant on an unprecedented level we haven't seen since babe Ruth. It's not close.
 

L Thammy

Spacenoid
Member
Oct 25, 2017
50,134
Who would win in a fight: a professional baseball player armed with a baseball bat or an unarmed professional boxer?
 

MCee

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,461
Bay Area
Give it ten years, and we'll know who was more dominant in their sport, but Shohei is much more of a household name. It's not even close.
 

crimzonflame

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,808
Gee I wonder if the best baseball player in the world is more popular than a boxer in Japan where baseball is the nation's #1 sport?
 
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Carlquincy

Member
Jul 25, 2022
1,314

Shoe

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,215
Ohtani and Ohtani. He is on the verge of being in the GOAT conversation.
 

345

Member
Oct 30, 2017
7,559

this.

ohtani is easily the most famous japanese athlete within japan right now. boxing is not a mainstream sport here, baseball is #1.

that said, inoue is pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world and keeps dominating at different weight classes. ohtani is probably as close to an equivalent of that as can exist in baseball, but he's not "dominant" in the same way, not least because he plays for the los angeles angels.
 
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Carlquincy

Member
Jul 25, 2022
1,314
I'm a casual sports fan and never even heard of Inoue but definitely know Ohtani.
If you are remotely interested in fighting sports, do check him out. Inoue is dominating at a unreal level now.
Dude Japan is all over Shohei.
And the rest of the world should follow suit. Ohtani is a anime character unfolding right in front of us.
agreed
edit: while on the topic of inoue, definitely didn't expect him to dominate fulton that hard yesterday
Yeah, I waited till after that fight to post this. Thought it would be a closer fight.
 

DinosaurJerky

Member
Nov 19, 2022
858
There's a credible argument to be made that Ohtani's the best baseball player ever, albeit not in terms of career value.
 

JahIthBer

Member
Jan 27, 2018
10,464
Inoue is imo the no.1 P4P champ right now. Usyk is up there but he simply does not fight enough and Canelo failed to get that big win at 175. Japan should be very proud of Inoue.
As for popularity probably Ohtani. Boxing did take a big dive in popularity once the iron curtain fell and Americans couldn't have a monopoly in the heavyweight division anymore. The American media didn't really want to promote non Americans like the Klitschko's and it just hasn't recovered since, obviously UFC was a factor too.
 
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Nabs

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,737
Ohtani just had a 1 hit complete game this afternoon. And now he's 2 homeruns deep in his second game of the day. It's a joke how good he is.
 

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever™
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,925
Ohtani is a unicorn in the modern era of baseball. This is a "stop and pay attention" moment if you're a fan of sports in general because it will come and go and it's very unlikely you'll see a player with this much talent at both hitting & pitching ever again. It'd be like a soccer player leading the league in goals or assists and also getting clean sheets every fourth or fifth game as a goalkeeper … that also scores a couple goals as well from that position lol
 

KingM

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,528
1 is definitely Ohtani and 2 is 90% Ohtani. Only thing holding him back is being on a team that is allergic to winning.
 

Big Tent Expat

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
1,401
Inoue is imo the no.1 P4P champ right now. Usyk is up there but he simply does not fight enough and Canelo failed to get that big win at 175. Japan should be very proud of Inoue.
As for popularity probably Ohtani. Boxing did take a big dive in popularity once the iron curtain fell and Americans couldn't have a monopoly in the heavyweight division anymore. The American media didn't really want to promote non Americans like the Klitschko's and it just hasn't recovered since, obviously UFC was a factor too.
It's not just that the Iron Curtain fell, a lot of the reason Americans don't dominate boxing anymore is because our best athletes simply don't go into boxing anymore. Football, basketball, and baseball are full of guys who would've picked boxing 40 years ago.
 

JahIthBer

Member
Jan 27, 2018
10,464
It's not just that the Iron Curtain fell, a lot of the reason Americans don't dominate boxing anymore is because our best athletes simply don't go into boxing anymore. Football, basketball, and baseball are full of guys who would've picked boxing 40 years ago.
A little bit, 5'11 guys like Tyson and Fraizer probably wouldn't have been getting into the NBA lol so boxing it is. Wilder did say he wished he got into Football/NBA instead, who wants to get punched in the face when you can throw a ball in a basket instead.
 

Fall Damage

Member
Oct 31, 2017
2,128
Ohtani is the best baseball player today and in the discussion of greatest ever. Can the same be said of Inoue? (I don't follow boxing)
 

McScroggz

The Fallen
Jan 11, 2018
5,981
Shohei Ohtani is doing something that has never been done before. A lot of people compare him to Babe Ruth because of his dominance as a pitcher and a hitter, but they fail to understand that Ruth spent the early part of his career primarily as a pitcher and didn't dominate on the offensive end until after he essentially stopped pitching almost entirely. Ohtani is doing both at the same time!

What we are seeing from Ohtani is hard to put into words. To me it's him, full stop. When it comes to boxers it's common for a boxer to dominate not just in one but in multiple weight classes, so I don't even see how you can compare their accomplishments.
 

Arde5643

Member
May 3, 2022
82
For fight fans, it's definitely Inoue.

For anywhere where there's baseball, it's definitely Ohtani.

So probably the answer is Ohtani.

In terms of dominance, anyone saying Inoue is less dominant than Ohtani is seriously underrating Inoue's accomplishments - he basically dominated 4 weight classes above his starting weight class at 108 lbs.
And most likely he's going to be dominating in the next 122 and 126 lbs divisions as well.
 

Brinbe

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
59,939
Terana
ohtani is two stars in one. a freak of nature

like a top quarterback and edge rusher all in one player