Naoya Inoue is close to changing his nickname from the Monster of the Rising Sun to Godzilla. The Japanese fighter devours one opponent after another. He extended his winning streak in the ring after defeating David Picasso by unanimous decision (119-109, 120-108 and 117-111) in the main event of the evening in Riyadh. He reached 32 wins (27 KOs) and equaled a record only achieved by Muhammad Ali: four defenses of his super bantamweight world title in the same calendar year.
Inoue, the undisputed champion, holder of all four belts, defeated Ye Joon Kim in January and former world champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev (by unanimous decision) in September, in fights in Japan. In between, he knocked out Ramon Cardenas 45 seconds into the eighth round in May in Las Vegas. He then appeared at the Mohammed Abdo Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he has steamrolled Picasso to add to his list of records. Four fights in a year with the title at stake and as many victories. Like Ali in 1976.
Inoue made his debut in 2012 at 49 kg and now fights at 55 kg. Before becoming the undisputed super bantamweight champion, he was the bantamweight champion. Against Picasso, he once again showed his best boxing. He was in control from the first round. In the second round, he landed a series of punches to Picasso’s head while blocking the Mexican’s counters.
The dynamics of the fight did not change. For every punch Picasso landed, he received three or four from the Japanese fighter. Inoue raised the pace of his punches, landing several jabs that hurt the Mexican, who took them without faltering. The fight followed this same script until the end and did not change hands. The passage of the rounds confirmed the triumph of the Japanese fighter, who was not entirely satisfied because, as happened to him against Akhmadaliev, he did not reach the KO: “I’m not very happy with my performance, I could have done much better, so I will learn from this and be much better next time,” he said in the ring, while among the spectators was Oleksandr Usyk.
With the belts in safe hands, it looks like there will be a Japanese showdown in 2026. Inoue against Junto Nakatani, who on the same card defeated Sebastian Hernandez by unanimous decision (115-113,115-113, 118-110) to also reach 32-0 (24 KOs). “We both had very good wins tonight, so for next year Japanese fans can look forward to something very good,” Inoue announced.
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