Boxer Inoue Naoya is 2nd Japanese to win world titles in 4 weight divisions

Jul 26, 2023 | News On Japan

Jul 26, 2023 (NHK) - Japanese boxer Inoue Naoya became a world champion in his fourth weight class when he stopped Stephen Fulton of the United States at their WBC and WBO world super bantamweight title match in Tokyo on Tuesday.

The win made Inoue the second Japanese fighter with world championships in four weight classes, after Ioka Kazuto achieved the feat in June 2019.

Inoue outclassed defending champion Fulton with an eighth-round technical knockout. Tuesday's bout was Inoue's super bantam debut.

The 30-year-old has now won world titles at light flyweight, super flyweight, bantamweight and super bantamweight.

In December, Inoue became the world's first boxer to unify all four major titles in the bantamweight division. He then switched to super bantamweight, a higher category.

The WBC and WBO are two of the four major organizations that govern boxing, along with the WBA and IBF.

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