Naoya Inoue said he was “relieved” to have eased past his greatest boxing challenge to date, a pound-for-pound clash with fellow Japanese great, Junto Nakatani, in front of 55,000 fans at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday, May 2.
The victory arguably elevates him beyond Oleksandr Usyk in the conversation of who the No.1 boxer in the sport is, considering Inoue is taking on the biggest challenges while the Ukraine king boxes beneath himself later in May, against a kickboxing phenom Rico Verhoeven in a novelty bout at the Pyramids of Giza.
“Nakatani is a Japanese, pound-for-pound fighter who has risen through the ranks,” Inoue told reporters, post-fight. “There was pressure to not lose. It was a tense fight on May 2 so I’m relieved to have won.”
Scorecards showed the fight hung in the balance in the third quarter, and Inoue explained the reason for why he held back before pushing for the victory in the championship rounds.
“I was fighting while checking the points with my team,” he said. “In rounds eight, nine, and 10, I thought it would be okay to give up a few points. I thought it would be alright to hold back a little.”
The 12-round contest was more grueling for his “mental stamina” he said, than his physical. “That’s how intense the 12 rounds were. It was a technical battle of hitting and missing. We were both enjoying it.”
On Nakatani, who was taken to hospital after the fight, Inoue said: “He’s a mentally strong fighter and I think he’ll be a fighter who will be champion in the super bantamweight division again.”
The win pushed Inoue’s record to 33-0 (27 KOs) and may heighten calls for him to face another pound-for-pound fighter in diminutive American talent, Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez.
“My boxing career isn’t at the end,” he said, when it came to what’s next for him. “We just finished the fight so I’ll make history more and more … there’s nothing I can say. I will discuss with Mr Ohashi my future plan so we will discuss. For me, it’s a blank slate.”
