Against a legendary but aging Kazuto Ioka, Takuma Inoue produced a display of rare control, perhaps the most complete performance of his career. Naoya Inoue's younger brother was defending his world bantamweight title against one of the great names of Japanese boxing, a fighter who was trying to win a belt in a fifth weight class. But Ioka, at 37, never really managed to establish his boxing against an untouchable Takuma Inoue. Inoue brought out his very best: precise, sharp, confident, and in control in a way we may never have seen from him at this level before. That is even more striking when you remember that after his defeat to Seiya Tsutsumi, he seemed almost ready to consider ending his career. His win over Tenshin Nasukawa had apparently served as a springboard, especially mentally. This victory over Ioka says something different, though: against Nasukawa, Inoue had cooled the ambition of a young, explosive boxer in a hurry to take a belt; here, he dominated a great veteran full of experience, looking for one last piece of history. Two opposite profiles, two very strong answers.
In the ring, the visual impression could sometimes be misleading: Ioka was moving forward, applying pressure and taking up space. But Inoue, on the back foot, punished him constantly. He countered him, placed his combinations at the right moments and used his footwork to stop Ioka from building beyond two punches at a time. The start of the fight was especially rough for Ioka, who went down in the opening round and again in the second. In the first round, a beautiful right-hand counter from Takuma Inoue hurt him before Inoue immediately jumped on the opportunity, followed up and forced him to touch the canvas. In the second round, it was a magnificent uppercut that sat him down. Ioka is tough, he does not quit, and he made it to the end of the twelve rounds, but the gap was clear. Inoue's jab was sharp, incisive and fast; his combinations came only when they needed to; and even when he accepted the inside fight, he remained in control of that tight boxing, with elegant arm work and plenty of uppercuts.
With this victory, Takuma Inoue really gives the impression that he has reached a new dimension. We knew him as a serious boxer, solid in his fundamentals, capable of controlling opponents over the distance, but he may have been missing this kind of spectacular performance to establish himself as a more attractive headliner. Against Ioka, he added knockdowns, entertainment and a very pure boxing aesthetic to his usual discipline. Of course, one can ask how much Ioka's age and declining hand speed played into it, but that takes nothing away from the quality of what Inoue produced: discipline, measure, speed and precision. If someone wants to understand what clean, intelligent and beautiful boxing looks like, this fight is an excellent example. And when you add what his older brother did in the following fight, you can truly say that the Inoue brothers are on top of the world. For Kazuto Ioka, however, it may be time to hang up the gloves. He will remain a legend, a future Hall of Famer, a champion in four divisions, with absolutely nothing to reproach himself for. On this night, he simply ran into a superior, very sharp Takuma Inoue, carried by the best momentum of his career. In the lower weight classes, Japan, and especially the Ohashi Gym, continues to weigh heavily on the international boxing scene. And with Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez also moving toward bantamweight, the idea of Bam Rodriguez against Takuma Inoue may be more realistic in the short term than a direct clash with Naoya Inoue. It would already be a major test of what Bam is worth in this division.
