The two-day boxing extravaganza, or if you prefer, festival, got to a great, dramatic start earlier today in Tokyo, Japan. Fans saw a big upset, as Takuma Inoue lost his WBA bantamweight title when his countryman Seiya Tsutsumi won via 12 12-round unanimous decision.
It seems we could be one big step, one huge step, closer to seeing the biggest fight in Japanese boxing history come to fruition.
The sport of boxing is absolutely buzzing right now in Japan, with little giants such as Naoya Inoue, Junto Nakatani, Kensiro Teraji and others all regularly featuring in excitement-filled, quite beautiful to watch fights.
Talk about a clean sweep. A heck of a hugely impressive clean sweep. Right now, one country can make the claim of having hold of all the gold in two weight divisions.
Well, one Inoue has done his job. Today at the cavernous Dome in Tokyo, Takuma Inoue, younger brother of Naoya and a real talent in his own right, suffered a flash knockdown before coming on strong to defeat countryman Sho Ishida by wide 12 round unanimous decision.
Today, in the final instalment in the trio of world title fights taking place in Tokyo, Japan, Takuma Inoue scored a surprise KO win over Jerwin Ancajas of the Philippines to retain his WBA bantamweight title.
Takuma Inoue, better known as the brother of ‘Monster’ Naoya Inoue and who could have well earned the nickname ‘Surprise Package’ Inoue, decided that merely keeping his WBA bantamweight title wasn’t enough.
Takuma Inoue Stuns Jerwin Ancajas with Knockout Body Shot in Round 9! Takuma Inoue stamped his authority as the WBA bantamweight kingpin, delivering a thunderous body shot in the ninth to lay former champ Jerwin Ancajas flat, marking Ancajas’ first stoppage loss.
Santiago vs. Nakatani: Watch LIVE on ESPN+ live in the U.S. beginning at 4:00 a.m. ET
On Saturday morning in the wee hours in America, Junto Nakatani goes up in weight to challenge Alexandro Santiago for his WBC 118-pound strap.
After a pretty quiet weekend schedule for boxing fans (we should of course have seen the big fight on this past Saturday night, between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury, but alas, we hope (and pray) for the new date of May 18 to come off) – we can now look forward to a solid schedule set for this coming weekend.