{"id":562207,"date":"2026-05-02T10:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T10:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/562207\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T10:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T10:03:11","slug":"inoue-vs-nakatani-fight-time-undercard-prediction-ring-walks-how-to-watch-odds-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/562207\/","title":{"rendered":"Inoue vs Nakatani: Fight time, undercard, prediction, ring walks, how to watch, odds today"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biggest fight in the history of boxing<\/a> in Japan sees Inoue put his undisputed status at super-bantamweight on the line for the seventh time against his domestic rival.<\/p>\n

It is a huge showdown that has been a long time in the making as two highly-decorated and undefeated, 32-0 fighters finally go head to head after no shortage of build-up in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Monster\u2019 Inoue, the fearsome knockout artist, is looking to further cement his legendary legacy after twice becoming undisputed and winning world titles across four different weight divisions, though he could face the sternest test of his illustrious career so far against a three-weight world champion in Nakatani, who most recently reigned as the unified bantamweight champion.<\/p>\n

After picking up titles at flyweight and super-flyweight, Inoue went on to become undisputed at both bantamweight and super-bantamweight, completing the latter set of belts with wins over Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales before successfully dispatching all of Luis Nery, TJ Doheny, Ye Joon Kim, Ramon Cardenas and Murodjon Akhmadaliev.<\/p>\n

He last fought in Riyadh in December, when he outclassed Mexico\u2019s Alan David Picasso to win on points after Nakatani had earlier defeated Sebastian Hernandez by unanimous decision in a tricky test on the same bill on what was his debut up at super-bantamweight.<\/p>\n

Like Inoue, southpaw \u2018Big Bang\u2019 Nakatani also won world titles at flyweight and super-flyweight before becoming a unified champion at bantamweight and then vacating his belts to make another step up in preparation to meet Inoue.<\/p>\n

Inoue vs Nakatani fight date and venue<\/p>\n

Inoue vs Nakatani takes place today on Saturday May 2, 2026 at the sold-out, 55,000-capacity Tokyo Dome in Japan.<\/p>\n

Inoue vs Nakatani fight time and ring walks<\/p>\n

Inoue and Nakatani are expected to be in the ring for today\u2019s main event at approximately 1pm BST, which is 9pm local time. That is 8am ET and 5am PT in the United States.<\/p>\n

The main card is set to get underway at around 10:40am BST, 6:40pm JST, 5:40am ET and 2:40am PT. As ever, those exact timings are subject to change.<\/p>\n

How to watch Inoue vs Nakatani<\/p>\n

TV channel and live stream: The fight is being broadcast live and exclusively in the UK via DAZN.<\/p>\n

It can be viewed through a regular DAZN subscription and is not on their pay-per-view service. A monthly flexible pass for DAZN currently costs \u00a325.99.<\/p>\n

An annual super saver subscription is available for \u00a3119.99, or \u00a315.99 per month.<\/p>\n

The fight can be watched on the DAZN website and app, which is available on smart TVs, laptops, phones and tablets.<\/p>\n

Inoue vs Nakatani undercard <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s undercard is headlined by Naoya\u2019s younger brother Takuma Inoue, who defends the WBC bantamweight title he won against Tenshin Nasukawa for the first time as he faces veteran four-division world champion Kazuto Ioka in another all-Japanese contest.<\/p>\n

Naoya Inoue vs Junto Nakatani<\/p>\n

Takuma Inoue vs Kazuto Ioka<\/p>\n

Toshiki Shimomachi vs Reiya Abe<\/p>\n

Sora Tanaka vs Jin Sasaki<\/p>\n

Kosuke Tomioka vs Shogo Tanaka<\/p>\n

Deok No Yun vs Yuito Moriwaki<\/p>\n

Yoshiki Takei vs Dekang Wang<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dominance: Naoya Inoue made light work of Alan David Picasso in Riyadh in December<\/p>\n

Getty<\/p>\n

Inoue vs Nakatani prediction<\/p>\n

Inoue is, as ever, the obvious favourite for this super fight between two pound-for-pound talents, but he is certainly not taking the challenge of Nakatani lightly, calling his rival \u201cvery clever, serious and completely dedicated to boxing<\/a>\u201d during the respectful build-up.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Monster\u2019 added this week: \u201cBecause he’s that type of fighter, I’ve felt that I’ve needed to prepare with the same attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inoue\u2019s reputation as one of the sport\u2019s most destructive punchers certainly precedes him, but it\u2019s worth noting that he\u2019s gone the distance now in back-to-back meetings with Akhmadaliev and Picasso, albeit having dominated both.<\/p>\n

His reputation for infallibility has been impacted somewhat after being knocked down for the first time in his career by Nery and then again by Cardenas, though he went on to secure spiteful knockouts on both occasions.<\/p>\n

Despite rising up in weight to meet Inoue, Nakatani is actually the taller man by three inches and boasts a reach advantage that he will hope he can utilise effectively, though there will be obvious concerns at how difficult he appeared to find the challenge of Hernandez on his super-bantamweight debut in December.<\/p>\n

Inoue is another challenge altogether and we\u2019re backing him to put on another boxing<\/a> clinic to win comfortably on points.<\/p>\n

Inoue to win by unanimous decision.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tough test: Junto Nakatani certainly did not have everything his own way against Sebastian Hernandez<\/p>\n

Getty<\/p>\n

Inoue vs Nakatani weigh-in results<\/p>\n

Inoue and Nakatani both hit the scales in Tokyo on Friday, looking to stay within the super-bantamweight limit of 122 pounds.<\/p>\n

Inoue weighed in at 121.9 pounds, with Nakatani slightly lighter at 121.5 pounds.<\/p>\n

Inoue to win on points or by decision: 17\/10<\/p>\n

Inoue to win by knockout, technical knockout or disqualification: 11\/10<\/p>\n

Nakatani to win on points or by decision: 17\/2<\/p>\n

Nakatani to win by knockout, technical knockout or disqualification: 6\/1<\/p>\n

Odds via Betfair (subject to change).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest fight in the history of boxing in Japan sees Inoue put his undisputed status at super-bantamweight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,9558,9552,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-562207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-junto-nakatani","tag-naoya-inoue","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}