It wasn’t quite like Thomas Hearns vs. Marvin Hagler or Arturo Gatti vs. Mickey Ward, but Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani nonetheless delivered on Saturday with a high-level boxing match in front of a mammoth crowd.
In the end, Inoue (33-0, 27 KOs) came out on top, defending his undisputed junior featherweight titles with a unanimous win over Nakatani (32-1, 24 KOs) in front of a 55,000-strong crowd at the Tokyo Dome.
The judges scored it 116-112, 115-113, 116-112 all in favor of The Monster.
Inoue Engages First
The undisputed champ was neither flashy nor dominant, but he did enough with a clean and clinical performance to keep his WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, and Ring Magazine straps at 122 pounds.
The fight began slow, with both fighters measured and reluctant to engage—no doubt due to the healthy respect each man had for the other given their punching power. Inoue, though, started picking up the pace in Round 4 as he began throwing more forceful and purposeful jabs while going after Nakatani. The Monster continued to impose his will in Rounds 5 and 6 to turn the fight in his favor.
Nakatani Answers Back, But Inoue Unfazed
Nakatani began finding some rhythm in Round 7, finally getting on his front foot and throwing more spiteful combinations. He found more success in Rounds 8 and 9, with his coach, Rudy Hernandez, egging him on to let his hands go.
While Nakatani was more aggressive in the middle rounds, he couldn’t quite pin down Inoue, who used precise head movement and elusive defense to get out of Nakatani’s range and away from trouble. A pattern emerged in these middle rounds: Nakatani going after Inoue and finding some success, only for the latter to do just enough to steal some rounds in the end.
The Monster’s Finishing Kick
Inoue caught a break in Round 10 after a clash of heads caused a cut above Nakatani’s left eye. The cut seemingly energized the challenger, who finished the round strong, throwing combinations to the champion’s body and landing a crisp right hook at one point.
But with blood pouring into Nakatani’s eye in the final two rounds, Inoue took charge as champions do. The unified champ seized the opportunity, picked the pace up once more, and got the better of the challenger in most of the exchanges. Nakatani, though, didn’t back down, standing in the pocket and exchanging combinations with Inoue up until the final bell.
