Naoya Inoue delivered a dominant efficiency towards Junto Nakatani to retain his undisputed tremendous bantamweight title contained in the legendary Tokyo Dome.
Inoue got here out firing on all cylinders, pumping his jab and utilizing that to arrange a sequence of brutal photographs to the physique of Nakatani. Whereas Nakatani tried to counter one of many blows, Inoue delivered a brutal proper to the chin that knocked Nakatani off stability.
Inoue continued to manage the motion, punishing Nakatani’s physique all through the primary a number of rounds, whereas Nakatani hid behind his jab and little else. It wasn’t till the sixth spherical that Nakatani would lastly discover some momentum, connecting with a stable one-two that was by far his better of the battle.
Nakatani’s success bled into the seventh spherical, however by the point we obtained to the second minute of the stanza, Inoue was again in management.
Nakatani arguably took each the eighth and ninth rounds after getting a quick begin within the former and placing Inoue on his again foot. Throughout one flurry, Nakatani unleashed a sequence of lefts earlier than touchdown an uppercut with one other left behind it.
Close to catastrophe struck within the tenth as an unintentional conflict of heads precipitated a nasty reduce over Nakatani’s left eye. Fortunately, the reduce wasn’t unhealthy sufficient to justify a stoppage, taking us to the penultimate spherical, the place Inoue would ship maybe his finest spherical of the battle.
Inoue bullied Nakatani, mixing up his strikes to the top and physique because the challenger confirmed clear indicators of wrestle.
Inoue got here out aggressively within the opening moments of the twelfth spherical, however after recognizing that Nakatani had little left within the tank, ‘The Monster’ opted to cruise his strategy to a decisive choice victory.
Official Outcome: Naoya Inoue def. Junto Nakatani by way of unanimous choice (116-112, 115-113 & 116-112) to retain his undisputed tremendous bantamweight world championship.
