Naoya Inoue claimed the win against Ye Joon Kim on January 24 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. The Japanese four-division world champion defeated his opponent from Korea by knockout, delivering a one-two combination that followed a number of body shots. The official time of stoppage was 2:25 into the fourth round.
With the victory, 31-year-old Inoue improved to 29-0, 26 KOs and made the third successful defense of his undisputed super bantamweight title. 32-year-old Kim, who took the fight on short notice replacing Sam Goodman, dropped to 21-3-2, 13 KOs.
“My new opponent [accepted the bout] 10 days before the fight. I feel a lot of love from everyone. I appreciate it,” Naoya Inoue said. “Overall, I think it was a good match. I didn’t have enough time to study my opponent, so I just took time to see what was coming from him.”
In the co-feature, Jin Sasaki (19-1-1, 17 KOs) defeated Shoki Sakai (29-15-3, 15 KOs) by unanimous decision in an-all Japanese bout at welterweight. With the scores 118-110, 117-111, and 116-112, Sasaki retained his WBO Asia Pacific, and Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) belts.
Among other Inoue vs Kim results, Tsubasa Narai (15-2, 10 KOs) walked away with the win against Kai Watanabe (13-2-1, 7 KOs) at lightweight. The all-Japanese 10-round battle ended in split decision with the scores 96-94, 96-94, and 94-96.
Plus, Toshiki Shimomachi (20-1-3, 12 KOs) defeated fellow Japanese Misaki Hirano (11-2, 4 KOs) in a 10-rounder at super bantamweight. Shimomachi took the victory by majority decision with the scores 95-93, 95-93, and 94-94.
In addition, Filipino-born Japanese Yuni Takada (16-8-3, 6 KOs) upset Goki Kobayashi (7-2, 5 KOs) of Japan by split decision after 10 rounds at minimumweight. With the scores 116-111, 114-113, and 113-114, Takada claimed the WBO Asia Pacific strap.