Bantamweight Inoue 1st Japanese to unify 3 world boxing titles

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:02 JST, June 8, 2022

Naoya Inoue became the first Japanese boxer to simultaneously hold world titles from three sanctioning bodies in the same weight class after gaining the World Boxing Council (WBC) bantamweight belt from Filipino Nonito Donaire with a second-round technical knockout on Tuesday at Saitama Super Arena.

In a rematch of their November 2019 bout, Inoue defeated Donaire again with a dominant performance, adding the WBC belt to his World Boxing Association (WBA) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) titles.

“I put pressure on myself to try to dominate and win. I was able to come away with the best outcome, and this was a great day,” the 29-year-old Inoue said from the ring, wearing the three belts as he relished the moment with the crowd.