Naoya Inoue did what Merab Dvalishvili couldn’t do in 2025, and that’s defend his title a whopping four times in the year.
Indeed, Dvalishvili came up short against Petr Yan in the main event of UFC 323, losing via unanimous decision. Prior to the defeat, “The Machine” had three straight title defenses during the year. As for Inoue, he accomplished the feat after defeating David Picasso via unanimous decision on Dec. 27 (recap here), capping off an amazing year for the Japanese-born great.
Now, “The
Monster” is lined up for one of his greatest challenges in 2026 as a recent report by The Ring states that he is in line to face defend his WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring super bantamweight titles against Junto Nakatani.
Nakatani is undefeated at 32-0 with 24 knockouts and is the current WBC, IBF and The Ring bantamweight champion of the world and defeated Sebastian Hernandez on the “Inoue vs. Picasso” card via unanimous decision. The fight against Inoue, should it come to pass, will undoubtedly be one of the biggest the country of Japan has ever seen, and is expected to take place inside the Tokyo Dome, which can house up to 55,000 fans.
Early predictions?
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