Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani Square Off Saturday at Sold-Out Tokyo Dome in All-Japanese Title Showdown

Two undefeated Japanese boxing champions meet Saturday night at a sold-out Tokyo Dome as Naoya Inoue puts his undisputed super-bantamweight titles on the line against Junto Nakatani — a fight billed as the biggest in Japanese boxing history.

The Details

Naoya Inoue (32-0, 27 KOs), 33, defends his WBA, WBC, IBF, and WBO super-bantamweight titles against fellow undefeated countryman Junto Nakatani (32-0, 24 KOs), 28, on Saturday, May 2, 2026, at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. The 55,000-capacity venue is sold out, and live closed-circuit screenings at more than 100 cinemas across Japan are also fully booked.

Main-event ring walks are expected at approximately 8 a.m. ET / 5 a.m. PT, which corresponds to 9 p.m. local time in Tokyo. The undercard begins at around 3 a.m. ET / 12 a.m. PT.

The fight is available to stream live on DAZN. In the United States, DAZN subscriptions start at $20.99 per month, with an Ultimate Tier at $49.99 per month that covers additional pay-per-view events. In the United Kingdom, DAZN monthly plans begin at £15.99, and the fight is not behind an additional pay-per-view wall.

Inoue holds the No. 2 spot on Ring Magazine's pound-for-pound rankings. Nakatani sits at No. 6. Both fighters are multi-weight world champions. Nakatani, a southpaw, holds a physical edge of three inches in height and one inch in reach over Inoue.

At the final press conference held Thursday at the Tokyo Dome hotel, Inoue was measured in his remarks. "I've done everything I needed to do, so I don't really have any particular feelings about it right now," he said. "I get the impression that Nakatani has had some really good training. I myself have also had some really great training." When pressed further, the champion kept it simple: "There's only one thing: I'm determined to win in two days."

The undercard features an all-Japanese WBC bantamweight title bout between Takuma Inoue — Naoya's younger brother — and four-division world champion Kazuto Ioka.

Both Naoya Inoue and Nakatani competed on the same December card in Riyadh. Inoue outpointed Alan David Picasso, while Nakatani defeated Sebastian Hernandez Reyes by unanimous decision in his super-bantamweight debut.

Context

The matchup pits the two highest-ranked Japanese fighters in boxing against each other during Japan's Golden Week holiday period, according to The Guardian. Inoue previously unified all four major belts at bantamweight (118lb) and then repeated the feat at super-bantamweight (122lb), accomplishing the full unification at both weights in a 378-day span. Nakatani vacated his unified bantamweight titles to move up to super-bantamweight in preparation for this bout.

What's Next

The main event at Tokyo Dome is scheduled for Saturday night local time in Japan. Ring walks are expected at 8 a.m. ET / 5 a.m. PT for international viewers. Fans in Japan can watch at the arena or at one of the more than 100 sold-out cinema screenings, while international audiences can stream live on DAZN.