Naoya Inoue vs David Picasso result: ‘Monster’ continues to shine with another dominant display

Naoya Inoue vs David Picasso result

Just moments before his fight, Inoue ran into issues backstage regarding his hand-wrapping. The commission entered his locker room and ordered him to re-wrap his hands after accusing him of ‘stacking’.

‘Stacking’ is when a fighter uses gauze, then wrap, with another layer of gauze and wrap. Fortunately for the 32-year-old, though, he quickly re-wrapped his hands and was given the go-ahead.

In the opening round, Picasso looked to push the champion back against the ropes, not allowing him to work behind his incredible jab.

With a minute left of the round, the Japanese fighter began letting his hands flow, despite the continuous forward pressure from the Mexican.

Early in round two, ‘Monster’ landed several lightening fast combinations, landing to the body and head of the challenger.

With Inoue putting out more activity, Picasso struggled to mount any sort of offense, finding himself playing defense for the majority of the round.

Round three painted a similar story, but Picasso found slightly more success in the round, landing a few heavy body shots.

After another closely contested round, the Mexican picked up the pace in the final proceedings of round four, landing some of his best shots of the fight.

Near the end of round five, Inoue seemed put his foot on the gas and landed a few heavy shots, but Picasso did well to tuck up and defend.

Following round six, the Mexican returned to his corner to be told he won the round, potentially his first of the fight.

The next few rounds played out extremely similarly as Picasso struggled to land anything to note as Inoue just danced in and out of range with his speed.

Round eight saw Inoue land several more body shots which looked to be paying dividends as Picasso majorly slowed down.

In the final round, Picasso attempted one final rally and to his credit, landed a few huge shots, but he was unable to score the knockout blow that was needed and Inoue was awarded the unanimous decision win.

Is Naoya Inoue the Fighter of the Year?

Coming one of the final fights of the year, many fans had Terence Crawford as the 2025 Fighter of the Year because of his huge win over Canelo Alvarez this past September.

However, after picking up his fourth win of the year, Inoue could’ve stolen the title.