Former World Boxing Council bantamweight interim champion Takuma Inoue of Ohashi Boxing Gym, showing fancy footwork throughout, beat Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation bantamweight kingpin Keita Kurihara of Ichiriki Boxing Gym with a technical decision and captured the title on Jan. 14.

The end of the scheduled 12-rounder at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall came 2 minutes and 25 seconds into the ninth round when the referee stopped the contest as Kurihara’s injury above the left eye he sustained in the first round due to an accidental butting visibly worsened.

The decision of the highly touted bout then went to three judges’ scorecards. Two judges scored the fight 89-82 and the third judge had it 90-81, all in favor of Inoue, a younger brother of Naoya ‘’Monster’’ Inoue. There were no knockdowns in the fight.

It was the 25-year-old Inoue’s first win since losing to WBC bantamweight champion Nordine Oubaali of France in the title unification match in November 2019. Inoue used to possess the OPBF super flyweight title and gave up the title in 2016 after successfully defending it twice.

Inoue, currently ranked seventh by the WBC and sixth by the World Boxing Organization, while the 28-year-old Kurihara is ranked fourth by the International Boxing Federation. Kurihara failed in his second defense of the OPBF crown he won in 2018.

While Inoue looked stiff in the opening round and both fighters fought at close range when the accidental head-butting occurred, which resulted in Kurihara suffering a cut above the left eye.

From the second round onward, Inoue moved side to side with speedy footwork as Kurihara moved forward to land his favorite straight right, which rarely landed Inoue cleanly. Although Kurihara managed to hit an overhand right in the fifth round, Inoue quickly used his vaunted footwork to avert Kurihara’s follow-up punches while landing counter punches.

Inoue evaded Kurihara’s one-dimensional punches and piled up points with his light but accurate counter punches.

With the victory, Inoue improved his record to 14 wins, including three knockouts, against a loss, while Kurihara sagged to a 15-6 win-loss result with 13 KOs.

After the fight, Inoue said, ‘’It was my strategy to stick to my boxing without mixing it up with him. I think I was able to do that to a certain extent. I don’t want to feel the same sad experience I did in the world title unification fight. Therefore, I was determined to win the fight by all means and hope to challenge a world title again. From now on, I will do my best so that I can come close to my elder brother.’’