Ring V Results; Inoue Defeats Picasso; Nakatani Edges Hernandez in Battle

In his fourth title defense of this calendar year, undisputed super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (32-0, 27 KOs), 121.5, successfully kept his four belts as he gave a lesson to unbeaten Mexican Alan David Picasso (32-1-1, 17 KOs), 121.1, winning a unanimous decision (119-109, 120-108, 117-111) over twelve technical rounds on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. But “Monster” Naoya failed to score a highly expected knockout win over the totally defensive and negative Mexican challenger, who, however, showed his heart only in championship rounds.

Formerly three-division champ, unbeaten Japanese southpaw Junto Nakatani (32-0, 24KOs), 121.6, had a very tough time coping with unbeaten Mexican trial horse Sebastian Hernandez (20-1, 18 KOs), 120.8, and eked out a debatable unanimous decision (115-113 twice, 118-110) over twelve furious rounds on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This was supposed to be a tune-up bout for Nakatani prior to his greatly expected showdown with undisputed world super bantam champ Naoya Inoue. But Nakatani’s performance was less satisfactory than what we expected since he struggled to handle the non-stop advancing Mexican Hernandez with strong heart. This reporter saw it 114-114, evaluating Hernandez’s aggressiveness in the second half. Nakatani sustained a badly swollen right eye to show his toughest fight of his career.

Nakatani was in command in the first four rounds, utilizing his awkward southpaw style of ducking low with a wide stance as usual. Hernandez, however, attempted to mix it up in the close quarter from the fifth on, which occasionally had the prefight favorite Junto in trouble. The seventh saw the Mexican exclusively attack his foe’s midsection, which seemed to have him slowing down in later rounds. Nakatani should have outboxed the game and gallant Mexican more, but his pride and confidence forced him to continue mixing up in the short range, where Hernandez was more persistent and powerful than Junto’s previous 118-pound rivals. Nakatani lately renounced his belts and moved up to the 122-pound category, but he has not yet adjusted himself to fight with heavier, taller and tougher opponents from now on.

WBO#10 Eridson Garcia (23-1, 14 KOs), 134.5, Dominican Republic, turned the tide with a come-from-behind knockdown of previously unbeaten Japanese prospect Taiga Imanaga (9-1, 5 KOs; amateur 113-13), 134.6, and eked out a split decision (96-93, 95-94 for him, 94-95 against him) over ten furious rounds on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was a shocker for formerly ten-time national amateur champ Imanaga and his adherents watching the fight in Japan as he was winning until before his crucial visit to the deck in round eight caused by Garcia’s solid well-timed right hook to the button. It was Garcia that had Imanaga at bay with his last surge.

Unbeaten Japanese super feather prospect Reito Tsutsumi (4-0, 3 KOs; amateur 57-2), 129.7, scored a fine knockout win over Leobardo Quintana (12-2, 5 KOs), Mexico, at 1:14 of the fourth round in a scheduled eight on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It was a curtain raiser of the Night of the Samurai show, and Reito, 23, under the promotional agreement of Riyadh Season, dropped the durable opponent with a well-timed southpaw right hook midway in round four.