Undisputed Junior Featherweight Showdown
Undisputed IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO/Ring Magazine Junior Featherweight Champion Naoya “Monster” Inoue (33-0, 27 Kos) continued his dominant performance in the Junior Featherweight Division when he took on another heavy fisted challenger coming up in weight in undefeated former IBF/WBC Bantamweight Champion Junto “Big Bang” Nakatani (32-1, 24 Kos) this morning at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan before 55,000 fans in attendance.
In the first few rounds, Nakatani uncharacteristically fought with extreme caution by not letting his lethal hands go unlike Inoue who pressed the action by being the aggressor and letting his hands go, keeping the rounds interesting. That being said, Nakatani eventually started to let his hands go in stretches but still with much caution to match up with Inoue who kept a steady pace with accurate punch output.
As expected, both combatants were strategic in their approach but to me it was Inoue who looked more like the risk taker inside that squared circle. The action picked up as the rounds progressed when both warriors looked to do some damage to one another whenever the opportunity presented itself. As much as Inoue’s speed was a problem so was Nakatani’s jab whenever it landed but the real difference, was Inoue’s power punches which were visibly more effective then Nakatani’s.
Nevertheless, this was a highly executed bout where both combatants had their moments which made it that much more interesting. After 12 full rounds of action the Judges at hand scored it 116-112, 116-112 and 115-113 unanimously for Naoya Inoue.
This was a challenging bout for Inoue where he had to adjust on the fly as his opponent was quite skilled and evasive in his own way. Inoue still found a way to prevail and retain his Undisputed IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO/Ring Magazine Junior Featherweight Championship crown.
Well done, Naoya. Who’s next?
Blaze