Photos: Naoya Inoue retains title by decision against David Picasso

Naoya Inoue retained his undisputed super bantamweight title against David Picasso at Ring V: Night of the Samurai in Riyadh on December 27. Japanese four-division world champion Inoue put on a dominant performance, defeating Mexico’s Picasso by unanimous decision, with scores of 119-109, 120-108, and 117-111.

With the victory, undefeated 32-year-old Inoue made his sixth successful defense of the 122-pound crown, retained his belts, and improved to 32-0, 27 KOs. Picasso, 25, who also entered the ring unbeaten, dropped to 32-1-1, 17 KOs, suffering his first career defeat in his first bid to become a champion.

In his post-fight interview, Naoya Inoue said he wasn’t happy with his performance. As for his next fight in 2026, he said he would consider facing Junto Nakatani or Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez.

On Inoue vs Picasso undercard

Among other Inoue vs Picasso results, Japanese three-division world champion Junto Nakatani (32-0, 24 KOs) defeated Mexico’s Sebastian Hernandez Reyes (20-1, 18 KOs) by unanimous decision. After 12 rounds, two judges scored it 115-113, while the third judge had 118-110. With the victory, Nakatani made his successful super bantamweight debut.

Dominican Eridson Garcia (24-1, 14 KOs) defeated Japan’s Taiga Imanaga (9-1, 5 KOs) by split decision at lightweight. After 10 rounds, one judge scored the fight 95-94 in favor of Imanaga, while the other two judges scored it 96-93 and 95-94 for Garcia.

In the event opener, Japan’s Reito Tsutsumi (4-0, 3 KOs) dropped and stopped Leobardo Quintana Sanchez (11-2, 5 KOs) of Mexico in the fourth round at super featherweight. Tsutsumi hurt his opponent with a left hook and sent him down on the canvas with a double right hand.

Ukraine’s champion Oleksandr Usyk and former champion Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan were among the guests at the event.

The scheduled world championship bout between Willibaldo Garcia (23-6-2, 13 KOs) and Kenshiro Teraji (25-2, 16 KOs) was canceled. Mexico’s IBF super flyweight champion Garcia fell ill following the ceremonial weigh-ins and was hospitalized; consequently, his fight with Japanese two-weight champion Teraji did not go ahead.