Takuma Inoue preserved his family’s and his nation’s honour under the watchful eye of his brother and fellow champion.
Takuma Inoue put on a fantastic display as he successfully defended his WBA bantamweight title at the Kokugikan in Tokyo by stopping Jerwin Ankcajas in the ninth round, paving the way for potential unification matches with other elite fighters in the division.
Early on, Inoue dictated the pace of the bout by delivering straight rights on his southpaw Filipino opponent regularly while connecting with power but not in bunches. Ancajas was about to enter the game when Inoue made a straight right, setting the tone for what was to come.
Inoue unexpectedly disregarded the mid-distance range that had yielded such positive results until then, choosing instead to participate in a phone-booth brawl in which Ancajas dealt him some severe punishment. Despite this, both fighters held their ground, with the Filipino visitor winning the bout.
Feeling more confident, Ancajas followed Inoue in the fifth, but the champion had already gone back to stick-and-move, dodging Ancajas’ attacks and making good backhand strikes to effectively hold the challenger at bay.
In the sixth, Inoue continued to hit strong single punches, missing combinations but never losing force. Sensing that Ancajas was already wearing thin, Inoue issued a challenge to his opponent for a head-to-head match in the seventh round, putting on a short-range boxing performance.
Ancajas attempted to reverse the momentum with a traditional attack to the midsection in the eighth round, but Inoue countered with an amazing sequence of no fewer than four punches to Ancaja’s body in the ninth, turning the tables on the challenger and sending him to the canvas on his knees. Ancajas did not even try to get up when referee Mark Nelson reached the tenth count.
Naoya Inoue, the current Ring junior featherweight champion and number one contender in the pound-for-pound division, hurried into the ring to congratulate his brother.
After his brother Naoya dropped it to move up in weight, 28-year-old Inoue, who is ranked No. 7 by The Ring at bantamweight, wins back the championship he took from Liborio Solis back in April 203. With the victory, he now stands at 19-1 (5 knockouts).
Ancajas, a former junior bantamweight champion who had nine IBF title defences prior to 2022 loss to Fernando Martinez of Argentina, falls to 34-4-2 (23 KOs).