Pound-for-pound star Inoue cruises past Picasso

Naoya Inoue, a super-bantamweight champion from Japan, defeated Alan David Picasso Romero in a stylish display to win the title in Saudi Arabia.

Inoue, 32, is regarded as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in boxing and excelled in 12 dominant rounds.

As the judges scored the contest 119-109, 120-108, and 117-111 in favor of the champion, Picasso, 25, was unable to live with Inoue’s speed and body shots in Riyadh.

Inoue, a four-division world champion and undisputed in two weight classes, expressed disappointment with his performance despite the one-sided nature of the victory.

He said, “I should have done better, but my performance tonight is not good enough.”

With the victory, Inoue extended his perfect record to 32 victories, including 27 by knockout, and sets up a potential showdown with Junto Nakatani in 2026.

In a close game marred by a contentious scorecard, Nakatani outscored Mexico’s Sebastian Hernandez Reyes on the undercard.

Inoue smoothly maneuvered through the gears after evaluating Picasso in the opening rounds.

Inoue appeared largely unaffected by his opponent’s strength in the first half despite the taller, rangier Picasso’s success in the first half.

Gennady Golovkin, the current president of World Boxing, watched intently as Inoue upped the tempo, threw effective combinations, and carried the fight with confidence.

As the resultant results became more and more obvious, Picasso’s movement slowed as the resultant heavy right hands and repeated hooks to the body were combined.

A valiant, last-ditch attempt at an unlikely upset was made with a thudding left hook in the 12th, but the fight had since gone on to become a masterclass.

Inoue claimed in the lead-up that his playing career is “running out” but that he has other options.

While he has embraced the challenge of unified super-flyweight champion Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, there has been rumors about a move up to featherweight to face Liverpool’s WBA world champion Nick Ball.

However, Nakatani is the opponent who many fans and renowned Saudi Arabian boxing champion Turki Alalshikh is most interested in watching.

Nakatani, who vacated his WBC and IBF bantamweight titles to regain weight, was a strong favorite to take Hernandez’ place in the opening round with sharp uppercuts and potent bodywork.

Hernandez struggled to fade in the second half, pressing forward relentlessly and landing impactful shots.

The contentious 118-110 scorecard highlighted well-known judiciary issues in the sport.

The three-weight world champion, who is unbeaten, added 32 victories to his 32 overall record, 24 of which were by stoppage.