Takuma Inoue defends his WBC bantamweight title against Tenshin Nasukawa on Sunday, September 27, at Toyota Arena Tokyo, ten months after handing the former kickboxing star the first defeat of his professional boxing career. The card streams live on DAZN in the United States, beginning at 3:30 a.m. ET with main event ring walks expected at approximately 7 a.m. ET, and airs on Prime Video in Japan.
The two met at the same venue on November 24, 2025, for the WBC belt vacated by Junto Nakatani. Nasukawa took the early rounds behind his hand speed before Inoue closed the distance and took over, winning a unanimous decision that ended a winning run stretching across 53 professional fights in kickboxing, mixed martial arts and boxing.
Both men have fought once since. Inoue (22-2, 5 KOs) made his first defense in May on the Tokyo Dome card headlined by his older brother, dropping four-division champion Kazuto Ioka twice on the way to a unanimous decision. Nasukawa (8-1, 3 KOs) stopped former two-division champion Juan Francisco Estrada in the ninth round of a WBC eliminator in April, earning the rematch as mandatory challenger.
Inoue has promised a more conclusive ending this time. “I will definitely defeat him again. I will knock him out without leaving any openings, just like in the first fight,” the champion said at a press conference in July, in comments translated by Yahoo Japan. “I’m sure the fans watching feel the same way, I’m aiming for a knockout win but being shut out is better because there’s nothing you can do. I don’t know [how much he’s improved] but I’m overestimating him, practicing to use various techniques and shut him out, no matter what.”
Nasukawa, who spent ten months rebuilding after the loss, warned that the champion is preparing for a different opponent. “If you fight me imagining [the same version of] me from that time, you’re in for a rude awakening,” he said in translated remarks from the same press conference. “I just want to get revenge and think the boxing world won’t be very exciting unless I win.”
The champion’s older brother, undisputed super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue, has publicly backed Takuma’s development ahead of the rematch. “Takuma’s growth is insane. He’s proving just how much a person can change once they gain confidence, or rather, until now, it felt like he never even had the drive to break through his limits from the practice stage,” Naoya wrote on X in translated remarks. “Takuma’s boxing, now armed with these two skills, is freakish and terrifying… can’t wait for September 27th.”
US sportsbooks list Inoue around a -260 favorite, with Nasukawa near +200, according to Uncrowned.
The undercard carries three more title fights. Former IBF bantamweight champion Ryosuke Nishida (11-1, 2 KOs) moves up to face Australia’s Sam Goodman (22-1, 8 KOs) for the interim IBF super bantamweight title, a bout that could position the winner for a future shot at Naoya Inoue. Tomoya Tsuboi (3-0, 2 KOs), boxing in just his fourth official professional fight after an April no contest against Pedro Guevara, meets South Africa’s Ricardo Malajika (17-2, 12 KOs) for the vacant WBC super flyweight title. Ryusei Matsumoto (8-0, 4 KOs) and Russell Acosta (17-0, 13 KOs) meet in a matchup of unbeatens for the interim WBO strawweight title, and Hayato Aiko faces Natsuki Kuramochi in a four-round featherweight bout.
