Upset season continues during the ongoing pandemic.
The latest entry came Thursday evening (local time) in Tokyo, Japan, where Koki Inoue suffered a stunning 7th round injury stoppage at the hands of countryman Daishi Nagata.
Inoue—the cousin of three-division titlist and pound-for-pound entrant Naoya Inoue (19-0, 16KOs)—was unable to continue due to right eye swelling shut at the hands of Nagata in their Japanese 140-pound title fight behind closed doors at the famed Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. The time of the stoppage was 2:17 of round seven.
The loss itself capped what was a troubling week for the 28-year old southpaw, who initially missed weight on Wednesday due to a miscalculation on his personal scale prior to the official weigh-in. Inoue eventually came correct, hitting 140 pounds on the nose only to walk into disaster on Thursday.
According to limited video footage obtained by BoxingScene.com, Nagata—a 30-year old locally-based southpaw—jumped out to an early lead, with the bout slowed due to a clash of heads in round three which left Inoue with a cut over his right eye. Nagata continued to apply pressure and began to pull ahead as the fight progressed.
Open scoring through five rounds revealed that Nagata was ahead 48-47, 48-47 and 49-46 on the three official scorecards. Inoue swept round six in the eyes of all three judges, pulling even at 57-57 on the respective cards of Takeru Okaniwa and Kazutoshi Yoshida while trailing 58-56 on the scorecard of judge Yuji Fukuchi.
Inoue’s luck ran out, however, when referee Michiaki Someya decided the damage around his right eye was deemed too severe to continue.
“The wound and swelling were so bad that I lost [by] TKO,” Inoue (15-1, 6KOs) revealed after the contest, showing his true class in the process. “Nagata was very strong, thank you!”
The loss is the first of the career for Inoue, who was beginning to make noise in a stacked 140-pound division. The bout was his first of 2020, having scored a trio of wins in 2019 before coming up short in his ninth career appearance at Korakuen Hall.
Nagata advances to 15-2-1 (6KOs) with the win, his fourth straight. All but one of his career bouts have taken place at the venue; the exception came in his pro debut where he fought to a four-round draw versus Takeshi Inoue (no relation to Naoya, Takuma and Koki).
According to our friends at AsianBoxing.info, the bout will air on Fuji TV via tape-delay on Sunday evening.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox