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The Japanese boxing superstar, Naoya Inoue becomes just the second two-weight undisputed champion in the modern four-belt era, after welterweight king Terence Crawford, with his 10th-round knockout win against Marlon Tapales. Inoue retained his WBC and WBO belts and won the IBF and WBA super bantamweight titles on Tuesday.
The 36-year-old American boxer, Terence Crawford became the undisputed champion at light welterweight and welterweight in July after defeating Errol Spence Jr. Apart from them, Katie Taylor and Claressa Shields are the other boxers to achieve the feat.
The Japanese boxer continued his dominance in boxing’s pound-for-pound rankings to stay undefeated after his victory against the Filipino on Tuesday at the Ariake Arena in Tokoyo. With this win, Inoue improved his record to 26-0 (23 KOs). The bout went to the 10th round as Tapales despite blocking a right cross, failed to stand in time and beat the referee's count, resulting in a knockout.
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In July 2023, Inoue became only the second-ever Japanese fighter, after Kazuto Ioka, to win major titles in four weight classes. The Japanese boxer defeated former unified super bantamweight world champion Stephen Fulton in an eighth-round technical knockout.
Following Inoue's historic victory, speculations sparked on social media about a possible super-fight between the Japanese boxer and three-weight world champion Tank Davis in May next year.
