For six rounds, Tenshin Nasukawa appeared to be losing the same fight twice. Takuma Inoue was beating him to position, scoring with the jab and straight right, and making Nasukawa’s promise to take the initiative sound increasingly empty. Then Nasukawa dropped the WBC bantamweight champion in round seven.

That knockdown gave the rematch the urgency their first meeting had lacked. Nasukawa came forward with more purpose, found openings for his left hand and made Inoue fight to preserve his lead. Inoue held on to win a unanimous decision Sunday at Toyota Arena in Tokyo, but he had to survive a much harder second half.

The official scores were 116-111, 116-111 and 114-113. Inoue moved to 23-2 with five knockouts, while Nasukawa dropped to 8-2 with three.

Nasukawa’s problem was the time it took him to change the fight. Inoue had spent the opening half collecting rounds with cleaner, more controlled boxing. Once Nasukawa put him down, the challenger needed to keep that pressure on without surrendering another round. Inoue regained his composure and did enough late to stop Nasukawa’s surge from becoming a complete turnaround.

The narrowest official score shows the knockdown’s importance. It also shows the cost of Nasukawa’s slow start. One big round could close the gap, but it could not erase all the work Inoue had done before it.

Nasukawa showed progress. In their November 2025 fight, he lost by scores of 116-112 twice and 117-111. This time he put the champion on the canvas and forced Inoue to fight hard through the final rounds. His stoppage of Juan Francisco Estrada in April was evidence that he had improved; this performance showed he could bring some of that growth into a fight with Inoue.

Still, the result is familiar. Inoue has now beaten Nasukawa twice and made the second defense of the WBC belt he won from him ten months ago. Nasukawa proved he can hurt the champion. To beat him, he needs to start fighting with the urgency he found in round seven.

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