Nagoya, Japan, was the site as Naoya "The Monster" Inoue dominated Murodjon "MJ" Akhmadaliev and won an easy unanimous decision to retain his undisputed junior featherweight titles.
Inoue never hurt or knocked down Akhmadaliev, which speaks volumes about the challenger's quality. However, the Monster was far too fast and skilled for Akhmadaliev, and aside from two or three rounds, Inoue dominated the fight.
Akhmadaliev did wobble Inoue in the waning seconds of the fight, but had little time to follow up.
Inoue earned the judges' nod by scores of 118-110 twice and 117-111, which was my score.
Inoue will make his next defense against another mandatory challenger (Akhmadaliev was the WBA's mandatory challenger) before the end of the year against the WBC's Alan David Picasso in Saudi Arabia.
Should Inoue retain those titles, he would face Junto Nakatani next year in the Tokyo Dome in the biggest All-Japanese fight in history.
The co-feature saw an upset as Christian Medina knocked out Yoshiki Takei in the fourth round to win the WBO bantamweight title.
Medina floored Takei in the first round and battered him throughout before finishing him in the fourth.
Paddy Donovan met Lewis Crocker for the second time, and for the second time, Crocker emerged with a controversial victory.
Donovan was dominating the first fight but was disqualified for hitting Crocker after the bell in an IBF welterweight eliminator.
Since then, Jaron "Boots" Ennis vacated the title, and the IBF mandated rematch was for the vacant title.
This time, Crocker scored knockdowns in the third and fifth rounds, but I thought Donovan was ahead (114-112 on my card) at the end of the fight.
The official decision differed, with Crocker winning on two cards (114-112 and 114-113), with Donovan winning on one card (115-111).
I'd be fine with a third fight eventually between these two.
Roman Gonzalez continued his comeback with a unanimous decision win over Hector Robles in Nicaragua.
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