Takuma Inoue climbed off the canvas and retained his WBC bantamweight title with a unanimous decision over Tenshin Nasukawa in their rematch Sunday at Toyota Arena in Tokyo. Judges Nathan Palmer and Juan Carlos Pelayo scored it 116-111, and David Sutherland had it 114-113, all for the champion.
Inoue improves to 23-2 (5 KOs) with the second defense of the belt he first won against Nasukawa. Nasukawa, the former kickboxing star, drops to 8-2 (3 KOs) after his second failed attempt at the title.
The two first met for the vacant WBC title on November 24, 2025, at the same venue, with Inoue winning a clear decision (116-112 twice, 117-111) and handing Nasukawa his first professional loss. Nasukawa earned the rematch by stopping Juan Francisco Estrada in nine rounds in April. Inoue made his first defense with a dominant decision over Kazuto Ioka in May, and the WBC ordered the immediate rematch.
Inoue started stronger than he had in the first fight. He controlled distance with the jab and the straight right hand, landing the right down the middle repeatedly against the southpaw, and punished Nasukawa’s habit of waiting for openings. Nasukawa boxed off the back foot early and missed with several wide hooks. In the second round, Nasukawa appeared to put Inoue down, but referee Michael Griffin ruled it a tangle of legs. Inoue had a strong fifth, working Nasukawa over on the inside.
Everything changed in the seventh. Nasukawa landed a sharp left hand in the first minute that dropped Inoue, then pinned him on the ropes and unloaded to the body and head. Inoue was buzzed by another left and appeared to hold himself up with the ropes. He waved Nasukawa on, but the challenger could not close the show, and it went in the books as a 10-8 round.
Inoue recovered from the eighth onward, coming forward and taking over at mid-range, where Nasukawa struggled on the back foot. Nasukawa kept pressing and took several of the late rounds on unofficial cards, but Inoue had banked enough early to protect the lead. One unofficial card had Inoue sweeping the first six rounds before Nasukawa took seven through ten and the twelfth.
Afterward, Inoue called it a “flash knockdown” from a momentary lapse and said there was no real damage. “The feeling of absolutely not wanting to lose. I fought to the end with that,” he said. He credited Nasukawa’s improvement as the reason he had to fight with extra spirit, and said he wants to add more titles and follow the path of his brother, Naoya Inoue.
It was a better showing from Nasukawa than the first fight, and he proved he can hurt the champion. Inoue’s composure after the knockdown proved decisive.
On the undercard, Sam Goodman (23-1, 8 KOs) won the interim IBF super bantamweight title with a unanimous decision over Ryosuke Nishida (11-2, 2 KOs) by scores of 114-111, 115-110 and 116-109 in a fight several observers called the best of the night. Ricardo Malajika took the vacant WBC super flyweight title with a split decision over Tomoya Tsuboi (116-112, 115-113, 113-115), and Ryusei Matsumoto won the interim WBO minimumweight title by unanimous decision over Russell Acosta Silveira (118-110, 116-112, 115-113).
