Fighting in front of 55 000 people at the Tokyo Dome in Japan, Naoya ‘Monster’ Inoue showed character as he stretched his unbeaten streak to 33 wins following a win over Japanese compatriot Junto Nakatani on Saturday.
The much-awaited fight, Japan’s biggest bout ever, gave boxing fans value for their money as both Inoue and Nakatani didn’t hold back throughout the 12 rounds.
In the end, it was Inoue’s hand which was raised as all three judges – Juan Carlos Pelayo (116-112), Raul Caiz Senior (115-113) and Patrick Morley (116-112) – agreed that he had done enough to retain his World Boxing Council (WBC), World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation (IBF), World Boxing Organisation (WBO) and Ring Magazine junior-featherweight titles.
Meanwhile, Inoue’s younger brother Takuma Inoue retained his WBC bantamweight title after he beat Kazuto Ioka by a unanimous decision with Koji Tanaka (118-108), Yoshikazu Furuta (119-107) and Alejandro Rochin (120-106) giving him the nod.
