World Boxing Association’s ‘’super’’ and International Boxing Federation’s bantamweight champion Naoya ‘’Monster’’ Inoue of Ohashi Boxing Gym stopped the IBF’s fifth-ranked challenger Aran Dipaen of Thailand in the eighth round to retain his titles on Dec. 14 in Tokyo.

With the victory, the 28-year-old Inoue retained the WBA title for the sixth time and the IBF crown for the fourth time.

The technical knockout of the scheduled 12-rounder at Ryogoku Kokugikan sumo Arena came 2 minutes and 34 seconds into the round when Inoue dropped Dipaen with a left hook to the head. While the gusty challenger struggled to his feet, Inoue also landed a left hook to the head, which severely staggered the Thai, and the referee immediately stepped in to wave off the fight.

The fight got off to a quiet start as neither boxer threw strong punches. But from around the second round, Inoue began to gradually increased his pressure based on his speedy jabs with the tight-guarded Dipaen stepping back.

Dipaen showed he could take punches in the fourth round when he threw left-right punches to Inoue, who connected with triple uppercuts at close range. Inoue also landed his vaunted left hooks to the body. But the 30-year-old Dipaen, who is also ranked 10th in the division by the WBA, took them without much ado.

In the fifth round, Inoue landed a wide variety of punches to the Thai after sticking out left jabs. But Dipaen did not appear to be severely damaged although he reeled back. But it was the end of his tenacity. Inoue was all over him in the eighth round.

After the fight, Inoue said, ‘’I am sorry I could not live up to the prefight prediction. My opponent took my punches without batting an eye. I felt like being mentally weak.’’
With the victory, Inoue increased his unbeaten streak to 22 wins, including 19 KOs. For his part, Dipaen fell to a 12-3 win-loss tally with 11 KOs.