Naoya Inoue is still the undisputed super bantamweight world champion, dominating his fight with Alan Picasso to win by unanimous decision in Riyadh.
Inoue improves to 32-0 (27 KO), and an incredible 27-0 in world title bouts in his career. The Japanese star likely now has a date set with countryman Junto Nakatani, who was victorious on the undercard in a fantastic fight with Sebastian Hernandez.
“My performance was not good enough tonight. I should have done better,” Inoue said through an interpreter.
Inoue also admitted that he was “really tired,” making his fourth championship defense of 2025, and that he would “rest for a while.”
Picasso (32-1-1, 17 KO) was never really close to winning the fight, but gave an excellent effort and was trying to find his way into the upset throughout. He loses no real standing with the defeat, having faced arguably the best boxer on the planet and going the full 12, all of it with spirit and grit.
Inoue vs Picasso scorecards
The official scores for the fight were 117-111, 119-109, and 120-108, all for Inoue.
Bad Left Hook unofficially scored the fight 120-108 for Inoue.
Is Inoue vs Nakatani coming next?
All signs have pointed to “yes,” but Inoue wasn’t committing in the ring. This could mean something or it could mean nothing, a statement that itself basically means nothing more than “we’ll see.”
“Both of us had very good wins tonight. Next year, we’re going to leave it to (the promoters) to decide what to do,” Inoue offered. “But for the Japanese fans, you can expect something very good.”
The idea of super flyweight champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez coming up to face Inoue was also discussed.
“Yeah, when he’s ready, and if he can fight in the super bantamweight class, and the timing works out, I’d love for him to challenge me,” Inoue said.
