Takuma Inoue vs Tenshin Nasukawa rematch set for September 27
WBC bantamweight champion Takuma Inoue will rematch Tenshin Nasukawa on September 27th at Tokyo's Toyota Arena, Bad Left Hook reports.
Inoue weathered an early scare to beat Nasukawa by unanimous decision last November, ending the kickboxing convert's 53-fight winning streak across multiple combat sports. The 22-2 titleholder and 8-1 challenger have each won once since, stopping Hall of Fame veterans Kazuto Ioka and Juan Francisco Estrada respectively this spring.
Will Nasukawa's Estrada performance translate against Inoue?
Nasukawa looked sharp against Estrada in May, raising questions about whether he has genuinely improved or simply caught a faded opponent. According to the report, organizers have not yet confirmed the undercard. Previous reports suggested featherweight/" class="internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2">super featherweight Tomoya Tsuboi might face Ricardo Malajika for the vacant WBC title on the card. WBC minimumweight champion Siyakholwa Kuse could also make his first defense against Ryusei Matsumoto after taking the belt from Melvin Jerusalem in a rematch last May.
The September date gives Nasukawa 10 months to adjust after his first professional loss.
Photo: RuinDig/Yuki Uchida / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Original reporting:
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