Naoya Inoue v Junto Nakatani: undisputed super-bantamweight championship – live updates

Takuma Inoue, Naoya’s younger brother, has just defended his WBC bantamweight title with a 12-round unanimous-decision win over Kazuto Ioka on the undercard. Ioka recovered nicely from a pair of early knockdowns in the second and third rounds, but the outcome was never in doubt – particularly with the open scoring in use. The official scores were 118-108, 119-107 and 120-106.

The 37-year-old Ioka fell short in his bid to win a world title in a fifth different weight class, joining Thomas Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford, the recently retired American star who is taking in tonight’s fights from ringside.

Kazuto Ioka (left) is dropped to the canvas by Takuma Inoue during their bantamweight title fight on Saturday at the Tokyo Dome. Photograph: Yuichi Yamazaki/AFP/Getty Images

Welcome to the Tokyo Dome for what’s sure to be an unforgettable occasion in the annals of Japanese sport. Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani, two multiple-weight boxing champions with identical 32-0 records, meet tonight at a sold-out stadium in a long-awaited showdown that has been accurately billed as the biggest fight in Japan’s rich boxing history. A crowd of 55,000 fans have packed the Big Egg during the Golden Week holiday with countless more watching in sold-out cinemas across the country.

For Inoue, this is familiar terrain. The 33-year-old undisputed 122lb champion has spent nearly his entire professional life carving through boxing’s weight divisions with a unique cocktail of speed, footwork and concussive power, winning titles at 108lb and 115lb before unifying all four major belts at bantamweight and super-bantamweight in a destructive ascent that has drawn comparisons to Manny Pacquiao. Known as the Monster, he enters tonight’s bout on a run of 28 straight wins in world championship fights and rarely been extended the distance, even if recent outings have offered flickers of vulnerability.