{"id":197473,"date":"2026-05-02T15:13:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T15:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T15:13:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T15:13:05","slug":"classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/","title":{"rendered":"Classy Inoue beats Nakatani to remain undisputed"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Naoya Inoue cemented his legacy with a unanimous decision win against fellow Japanese Junto Nakatani to retain his undisputed super-bantamweight status in Tokyo.<\/b><\/p>\n

In what was billed as one of the biggest fights to take place on Japanese soil between two of boxing’s top pound-for-pound fighters, Inoue, 33, once again rose to the occasion.<\/p>\n

Inoue, a four-division world champion and undisputed in two weight classes, dominated early and adjusted later in the bout as the previously undefeated Nakatani, 28, grew into the contest.<\/p>\n

Nakatani, who has held world titles in three divisions, suffered a cut above his left eye from an accidental clash of heads in the 10th round just as he was riding a wave of momentum.<\/p>\n

Two judges scored it 116-112 and the third 115-113 at Tokyo Dome.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“This victory is very valuable for me because he is also a big pound-for-pound fighter,” Inoue said.<\/p>\n

“I will come back to Tokyo to fight for you again. Keep rooting for me.”<\/p>\n

Victory extends Inoue’s perfect record to 33 victories, with 27 coming inside the distance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Inoue’s younger brother Takuma set the tone earlier on the card with a comprehensive points victory against Kazuto Ioka to defend his WBC bantamweight title.<\/p>\n

Takuma urged the 55,000-strong crowd to keep the support going for his older sibling, and Naoya was roared to the ring as pyrotechnics lit up the stage.<\/p>\n

The arena fell silent as the first half of the fight played out in tentative fashion, with both showing each other ultimate respect.<\/p>\n

Inoue was left trying to solve the puzzle of how to bridge the distance to a rangier Nakatani, but, in his 28th successive world title bout, he used his vast ring IQ to find angles to get in and out as he primarily attacked the body.<\/p>\n

Down on the scorecards, Nakatani began to engage in the second half of the bout as retired five-weight world champion Terence Crawford watched from ringside.<\/p>\n

Southpaw Nakatani had wrestled back some control but was halted in his tracks when blood began to impair vision in his left eye following a clash of heads.<\/p>\n

Inoue seized the opportunity to put his foot down and attacked with combinations in the final two rounds to punctuate another memorable victory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

After conquering the bantamweight division, Inoue moved up to super-bantamweight in July 2023 and became the undisputed champion later that year.<\/p>\n

He has made seven successful defences of that status but has fast run out of serious challengers, leading to speculation that another divisional change could be on the cards.<\/p>\n

Moving up to featherweight is an option, but the division lacks household names and a jump to super-featherweight is likely a step too far.<\/p>\n

Dropping back down to the lower divisions appears to be the most likely route for Inoue, and preliminary talks are under way, external<\/span> for a fight with pound-for-pound star Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez.<\/p>\n

American Rodriguez, 26, makes his bantamweight debut when he fights for the WBA title against Antonio Vargas on 13 June.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez has reigned as unified champion at flyweight and super-flyweight, and boasts an undefeated 23-fight record – 16 inside the distance.<\/p>\n

Inoue, who has fought five times in the past 15 months, said: “I have been so busy and had so many intensive days, so please give me a rest.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Naoya Inoue cemented his legacy with a unanimous decision win against fellow Japanese Junto Nakatani to retain his undisputed super-bantamweight status in Tokyo. In what was billed as one of the biggest fights to take place on Japanese soil between two of boxing’s top pound-for-pound fighters, Inoue, 33, once again rose to the occasion. Inoue, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nClassy Inoue beats Nakatani to remain undisputed - Tahrir News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Classy Inoue beats Nakatani to remain undisputed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Naoya Inoue cemented his legacy with a unanimous decision win against fellow Japanese Junto Nakatani to retain his undisputed super-bantamweight status in Tokyo. In what was billed as one of the biggest fights to take place on Japanese soil between two of boxing’s top pound-for-pound fighters, Inoue, 33, once again rose to the occasion. Inoue, […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tahrir News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-02T15:13:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Tahrir News\",\"description\":\"News all over the world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/\",\"name\":\"Classy Inoue beats Nakatani to remain undisputed - Tahrir News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-02T15:13:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-02T15:13:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/5eb9492fbc67154812b39589e826b6e4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/category\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Classy Inoue beats Nakatani to remain undisputed\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/5eb9492fbc67154812b39589e826b6e4\",\"name\":\"megahed\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ee3294b28670178246ce92a6679bf959bc435d2fcd9cb9ab078702487c106df?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ee3294b28670178246ce92a6679bf959bc435d2fcd9cb9ab078702487c106df?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"megahed\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Classy Inoue beats Nakatani to remain undisputed - Tahrir News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Classy Inoue beats Nakatani to remain undisputed","og_description":"Naoya Inoue cemented his legacy with a unanimous decision win against fellow Japanese Junto Nakatani to retain his undisputed super-bantamweight status in Tokyo. In what was billed as one of the biggest fights to take place on Japanese soil between two of boxing’s top pound-for-pound fighters, Inoue, 33, once again rose to the occasion. Inoue, […]","og_url":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/","og_site_name":"Tahrir News","article_published_time":"2026-05-02T15:13:05+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/","name":"Tahrir News","description":"News all over the world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/","name":"Classy Inoue beats Nakatani to remain undisputed - Tahrir News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-05-02T15:13:05+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-02T15:13:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/5eb9492fbc67154812b39589e826b6e4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2026\/05\/02\/classy-inoue-beats-nakatani-to-remain-undisputed\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/category\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Classy Inoue beats Nakatani to remain undisputed"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/5eb9492fbc67154812b39589e826b6e4","name":"megahed","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ee3294b28670178246ce92a6679bf959bc435d2fcd9cb9ab078702487c106df?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ee3294b28670178246ce92a6679bf959bc435d2fcd9cb9ab078702487c106df?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"megahed"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}