Seiya Tsutsumi battled to a stunning upset win to rip the WBA bantamweight title from Takuma Inoue in Tokyo.
Inoue (20-2, 5 KOs), the younger brother of pound-for-pound superstar Naoyo Inoue, was on a collision course with his country's other standout talent Junto Nakatani. The WBC 118 lbs champ puts his belt on the line against Tasama Salapat on Monday .
The relentless Tsutsumi (12-0-2, 8 KOs) clearly had not read the Inoue-Nakatani script and now has his own movie to star in after dragging the well-schooled champion into a gruelling slugfest.
WATCH: Takuma Inoue vs. Seiya Tsutsumi, exclusively on ESPN+
Takuma does not possess his sibling's chilling power and he will rue the fact his ego drew him into the mano a mano duel his more unheralded compatriot Tsutsumi wanted.
A 10th-round knockdown called against Inoue was controversial but the right man won, something the deposed champion acknowledged with a rueful nod as verdicts of 114-113, 115-112 and a bizarrely wide 117-110 were read out to an enraptured Ariake Arena.
Tsutsumi looked to start fast as the fighters circled in centre ring but Inoue's sharper shots and impressive accuracy held sway. The champ continued to look the more assured in round two, although we had a first sighting of sloppiness that tipified his performance when Tsutsumi landed a clattering left hook before the bell.
The challenger took this as his cue to launch a furious onslaught at the start of the third. He appeared to be getting to Inoue before being stopped in his tracks by a beautiful counter-right uppercut off the ropes.
A captivating spectacle of two men making no concessions for what was coming back the other way began to unfold — Tsutsumi brawling with tenacity and Inoue picked crisp shots out of his well-schooled defence. Ultimately and decisively, it was Tsutsumi who won the argument and set the stylistic terms.
In round five, Inoue opted to stay inside and trade with mixed results, scoring with a short uppercut inside Tsutsumi's wild hook but being caught heavily with one of the latter punches moments later. It ignited the challenger's best round of the contest at that stage.
Combinations of hooks to the body from Tsutsumi gave the clear message he felt the tide had turned and he was going to keep his foot flush on the accelerator. Inoue ate an overhand right and then an uppercut as he struggled with some unorthodox angles of attack.
More heavy shots from Tsutsumi arrived with the start of round seven. Inoue landed a clipping counter right to give Tsutsumi pause but it was undeniable at this point that the champion was boxing the wrong fight. He continued to brawl with the brawler in eight, with the challenger teeing off on the ropes.
Inoue was banking on his well-picked body work taming Tsutsumi's ferocity and he belatedly got back to producing some of his superior outside work in round nine before being left with a mountain he could not climb.
Early in the 10th, Inoue was absent-mindedly caught off balance with a left hook and fell back into the ropes as Tsutsumi waded in. The referee decided that only the ropes had kept the champion up and started a count. Inoue responded by cutting Tsutusmi but had shipped a 10-8 round.
Inoue decided the firefight he'd been an ill-advised participant in was the only remaining option with his title slipping away. An exhausted Tsutsumi was more than happy on this terrain and threw with abandon until the final bell battling to a richly deserved triumph that will send shockwaves through Japanese boxing.
The new champion was visibly emotional as he hoisted his belt above his head. It is less than a year since Tsutsumi's career was cloaked in tragedy after the 23-year-old Kazuki Anaguchi died from injuries sustained in their December 2023 contest. At this moment of ultimate professional triumph, those bleak realities of his sometimes harrowing trade are perhaps close at hand.
Takuma Inoue vs. Seiya Tsutsumi fight card
- Seiya Tsutsumi def. Takuma Inoue (c) to win the WBA bantamweight title
- Kenshiro Teraji def. Cristofer Rosales (TKO 11/12) to win the vacant WBC flyweight title
- Seigo Yuri Akui (c) def. Thananchai Charunphak (SD 12) to retian the WBA flyweight title
- Shokichi Iwata def . Jairo Noriega (TKO 3/12) to win the vacant WBO light flyweight title
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