Takuma Inoue got the rematch he wanted, and for six rounds he made it look easy. Then Tenshin Nasukawa put him on the canvas, and a routine title defense turned into the fight both men had promised. Inoue survived, closed the show, and beat his countryman for the second time in ten months to retain the WBC bantamweight title at Toyota Arena in Tokyo.
| Winner | Takuma Inoue, by unanimous decision |
| Scorecards | 116-111, 116-111, 114-113 |
| Rounds | 12 (scheduled), WBC World Bantamweight Championship |
| Date | September 27, 2026 |
| Venue | Toyota Arena, Tokyo, Japan |
| Result | Inoue improves to 23-2; Nasukawa falls to 8-2 |
Inoue picked up almost exactly where he left off in November. His jab and straight right hand controlled range from the opening bell, repeatedly finding a home on Nasukawa’s chin as the former kickboxing star boxed off the back foot and missed with wide hooks. A tangled-legs knockdown-that-wasn’t in round two — correctly waved off by referee Michael Griffin — was the only real drama through a slow opening half, with Inoue’s fifth round standout work on the inside pushing him clearly ahead on the unofficial cards.
Then came round seven. Nasukawa landed a sharp southpaw left in the opening minute that put Inoue down, then pinned the champion on the ropes and unloaded to the head and body. A second left buzzed Inoue badly enough that he needed the ropes to stay upright — by some other broadcasters’ read, that moment should have been ruled a second knockdown but wasn’t. The round went in the books 10-8 for Nasukawa regardless, and for the first time all night the outcome was genuinely in doubt.
Inoue’s response defined the fight. He came out sharper in round eight, retook the center of the ring, and started walking Nasukawa onto the right hand again through the mid-rounds. Nasukawa kept pressing and won stretches of the second half on the outside cards, but the deficit from the early rounds proved too much to climb back from. By the final bell, Inoue had done enough — cautious in the twelfth, unwilling to gift Nasukawa a stoppage chance, but secure in a lead he had built and defended.
The open scoring after eight rounds — 77-74 Inoue on two cards, 76-75 Nasukawa on the third — shows how differently the judges weighted the knockdown against the general work rate around it. That split explains the final tallies: two judges had it 116-111, meaning Inoue took roughly three of the last four rounds after his response, while the third, David Sutherland, scored it 114-113, treating the fight as competitive throughout.
Inoue’s unanimous-decision win over Kazuto Ioka in his most recent defense had suggested he was pulling away from this level. Saturday’s knockdown is a reminder that the power gap between him and elite operators at 118lbs is thinner than that result implied — and that Nasukawa, even in defeat, is a live threat to anyone in the division.
The first meeting was comfortable — 117-111 and 116-112 twice, with Nasukawa never seriously threatening. This time, Nasukawa arrived a different fighter: sharper in the pocket, willing to sit down on the left hand rather than wait for openings that never came, and good enough to hurt a world champion for the first time in his career. He earned this rematch by blitzing Juan Francisco Estrada in nine rounds, and he backed that form up against a much tougher, faster assignment.
Inoue’s composure after the knockdown was the difference. He called it a “flash knockdown” afterward, downplaying any real damage, and pointed to Nasukawa’s improvement as the reason he had to dig deeper than expected. Whether or not the knockdown carried more weight than he’s letting on, his ability to reset in round eight rather than fold under the pressure is exactly what separates a two-time title defender from a one-fight champion.
Inoue has now beaten Nasukawa twice, made the second defense of the belt he first won from him, and kept alive the long-term possibility of a Japanese super-fight pathway toward his brother Naoya’s undisputed super bantamweight throne — though Saturday’s knockdown means that route just got a little longer, not shorter. For Nasukawa, a second loss to the same opponent closes off this particular rivalry as a route to the title, but his performance — especially that seventh-round burst — confirms he belongs at world level and should have no trouble finding another mandatory-adjacent opportunity at 118lbs.
Elsewhere on the card, Sam Goodman took the interim IBF super bantamweight title from Ryosuke Nishida by unanimous decision, Ricardo Malajika edged Tomoya Tsuboi by split decision for the vacant WBC super flyweight title, and Ryusei Matsumoto won the interim WBO minimumweight title over Russell Acosta Silveira — a genuine four-title night in Tokyo.
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