That’s all for tonight. Thanks for following along with us and be sure to read our full report here.

Round 4

Inoue’s unique blend of power, speed and footwork on full display here in the fourth. Now he’s pointing to his jaw and showboating a little in the center of the ring. Inoue throwing a lot of shots upstairs while looking for that left hand to the midsection. Nery’s face is starting to show quite a bit of swelling.

Guardian’s unofficial score: Inoue 10-9 Nery (Inoue 38-36 Nery)

Round 3

Neither fighter appeared too hurt after his knockdown. But Inoue appears to have settled into the rhythm in the third. He’s timing Nery’s right hand and looking to counter with the left hand over the top. Nery will need to make an adjustment here if he hopes to stay in this. According to Compubox, Inoue has outlanded Nery by a 40 to 11 margin over the second and third rounds.

Guardian’s unofficial score: Inoue 10-9 Nery (Inoue 28-27 Nery)

The fighters have been announced by ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. The final instructions have been given by referee Michael Griffin, the seconds are out and we’ll pick it up with round-by-round coverage from here!

It’s time for the fighter entrances at the Tokyo Dome. First out of the tunnel is the challenger, Luis Nery, making the long walk to the ring draped in a Mexican flag and trailed by the rapper C-Kan. And now here comes the Monster! Naoya Inoue has emerged to deafening roars from the sold-out crowd, ambling to the ring in a black robe with white striped trim. Both fighters have climbed through the ropes when the Mexican national anthem starts playing. Nery and his corner sing the words with passion. Then comes Kimigayo, the Japanese national anthem. Inoya sways back and forth methodically, the picture of focus. Not much longer now.

Takei has shown mounting signs of weariness in the seventh, eighth and ninth rounds. He’s repeatedly looked up at the clock, a telltale of fatigue. Moloney hasn’t fully taken advantage, but he’s clawed his way back into the fight. Worth noting: Takei has only been past the eighth round once in his brief professional boxing career, an 11th-round TKO of Bruno Tarimo in 2022.

Jason Moloney is in big trouble against Yoshiki Takei in the final undercard bout ahead of the main event. Six rounds into their scheduled 12-round fight and it’s unclear if the Australian has managed to win a single round. Takei, a former K-1 kickboxing champion, appears within touching distance of winning a world title in only his ninth professional fight.

One more preliminary bout ahead of tonight’s main event as Australia’s WBO bantamweight champion, Jason ‘Mayhem’ Moloney, defends his belt against rising knockout artist and former kickboxing world champion Yoshiki Takei.

“I’ve always wanted to fight in Japan, and to do it on this huge show in front of a sold-out crowd at the Tokyo Dome is what dreams are made of,” Maloney said this week. “I want to be known as a throwback world champion. I won my title in America, defended it in Canada, and now I’m willing to go into enemy territory and defend my title in Japan.”

Takuma Inoue has retained his WBA bantamweight title with a unanimous-decision win over Sho Ishida. The judges’ scores were 118-109 (twice) and 116-111. In a crowd-pleasing scrap full of two-way action, Inoue overcame a patchy start including a first-round knockdown to batter and bloody Ishida with deft counter-punching down the stretch.

Naoya Inoue and Luis Nery both comfortably made weight ahead of tonight’s main event. Each came in under the junior featherweight divisional limit of 55.3kg (122lbs) at Sunday’s weigh-in: Inoue with 100g to spare at 55.2kg (121¾lbs) and Nery 500g under at 54.8kg (120.8lbs).

Nery was stripped of his bantamweight world title in 2018 after failing to make weight for a fight in Japan, prompting an indefinite ban by the Japan Boxing Commission to fight in the country that wasn’t lifted until this year.

“I knew he would make the weight,” Inoue said yesterday. “It’s a big event and Nery is probably making more for this fight than any previous fight in his career. I wasn’t worried.”

The Tokyo Dome’s primary tenants are the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball, who have played their home games there since its opening in 1988. Yesterday, the Giants played host to the Hanshin Tigers, which gave organizers roughly 13 hours to change the building over for today’s boxing card. Here’s a fun time-lapse video showing the conversion.

A bit of early drama in the second-to-last preliminary bout ahead of tonight’s main event. The WBA bantamweight world champion Takuma Inoue (19-1, 5 KOs), younger brother of Naoya, has suffered a first-round knockdown against former world title challenger Sho Ishida (34-3, 17 KOs) in their scheduled 12-round encounter. A perfectly placed left jab by Ishida dropped Inoue to the canvas but he easily beat the count and doesn’t seem hurt.

Seigo Yuri Akui has just retained his WBA flyweight title by a unanimous decision over Taku Kuwahara. The three judges at ringside handed down scores of 117-111 (twice) and 118-110 in a rematch of their 2021 Japanese title bout, which Akui won by 10th-round TKO.

Akui really stepped on the gas during the second half of a fight that was contested at a lively pace. A promising start to a stacked TV undercard.

Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s Thomas Hauser’s lookback at Canelo Álvarez’s defeat of Jaime Munguía over the weekend.