Takuma Inoue Drops Kazuto Ioka Twice, Retains WBC Bantamweight Title

The Inoue family had a clean sweep at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday, as Takuma Inoue successfully defended his WBC bantamweight title with a one-sided unanimous decision over four-division former champion Kazuto Ioka in the chief support to his older brother’s main event.

Inoue dropped the 37-year-old Ioka in the second and third rounds with eye-catching power shots, and from there it was a long night for the veteran. After the early knockdowns, Ioka had moments of pride but could not reverse the momentum and Inoue pulled away on volume and ring generalship. The official cards read 120-106, 119-107 and 118-108, a near-shutout that left no doubt who ran the night.

Ioka had entered the fight chasing history. A win would have made him a five-division world champion, an unprecedented mark for a Japanese boxer, and he had publicly framed the bout as the chance of a lifetime. Instead the night belonged to Inoue, who had promised to “move people” against the legend.

The result is a major statement for the 30-year-old Takuma, who has long fought in his older brother’s enormous shadow but is now a clear top-tier bantamweight in his own right. He has now beaten the likes of Jerwin Ancajas, Liborio Solis and Tenshin Nasukawa, and has rebuilt steadily since his 2024 loss to Seiya Tsutsumi. Inoue improves to 22-2 with 5 knockouts and looks set up for unification talks at 118.

Ioka, one of the most accomplished Japanese fighters of his era, falls to 32-5-1 with 17 knockouts. He is a former titleholder at minimum, light flyweight, flyweight and super flyweight and built a reputation as a smooth technician across two decades, but his bid to add a fifth divisional belt at 37 fell short on a night the younger generation took over.

Source: Boxing Insider, BoxingScene, Ring Magazine