Naoya Inoue delivered a dominant performance against Junto Nakatani to retain his undisputed super bantamweight title inside the legendary Tokyo Dome.
Inoue came out firing on all cylinders, pumping his jab and using that to set up a series of brutal shots to the body of Nakatani. While Nakatani attempted to counter one of the blows, Inoue delivered a brutal right to the chin that knocked Nakatani off balance.
Inoue continued to control the action, punishing Nakatani’s body throughout the first several rounds, while Nakatani hid behind his jab and little else. It wasn’t until the sixth round that Nakatani would finally find some momentum, connecting with a solid one-two that was by far his best of the fight.
Nakatani’s success bled into the seventh round, but by the time we got to the second minute of the stanza, Inoue was back in control.
Nakatani arguably took both the eighth and ninth rounds after getting a fast start in the former and putting Inoue on his back foot. During one flurry, Nakatani unleashed a series of lefts before landing an uppercut with another left behind it.
Near disaster struck in the 10th as an accidental clash of heads caused a nasty cut over Nakatani’s left eye. Luckily, the cut wasn’t bad enough to justify a stoppage, taking us to the penultimate round, where Inoue would deliver perhaps his best round of the fight.
Inoue bullied Nakatani, mixing up his strikes to the head and body as the challenger showed clear signs of struggle.
Inoue came out aggressively in the opening moments of the 12th round, but after recognizing that Nakatani had little left in the tank, ‘The Monster’ opted to cruise his way to a decisive decision victory.
Official Result: Naoya Inoue def. Junto Nakatani via unanimous decision (116-112, 115-113 & 116-112) to retain his undisputed super bantamweight world championship.
