Takuma Inoue had built a commanding lead when Tenshin Nasukawa dropped him in the seventh round. The knockdown turned their rematch into a tense finish, but Inoue recovered and retained his WBC bantamweight title by unanimous decision Sunday at Toyota Arena in Tokyo.
The judges scored it 116-111, 116-111 and 114-113 for Inoue, who improved to 23-2 with five knockouts. Nasukawa fell to 8-2 with three knockouts.
Inoue began as though he had carried the answer from their first fight into the second. His jab and straight right kept Nasukawa from taking the initiative he had promised. Inoue also held the better position through much of the fi
