Naoya Inoue knocked out Ye Joon Kim at 2:25 of the fourth round on Friday, January 24, 2025, at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, and kept the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO junior featherweight titles. A right hand put Kim down on both knees, and his corner threw in the towel.
Kim had taken the fight on less than two weeks’ notice after Sam Goodman pulled out with a recurring cut over his left eye. Inoue moved to 29-0 with 26 knockouts, and Kim fell to 21-3-2.
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How Inoue beat Kim
Kim started in a southpaw stance and fought on the defensive in the first round. Inoue trapped him in a corner in the second, and by the third Kim’s right eye was swelling, ESPN reported.
In the fourth, Kim pointed at his own chin and waved Inoue in, Daily Sports reported. Inoue answered with a right hand that dropped him. ESPN counted it as Inoue’s 24th straight title defense and his 10th stoppage in a row.
What this page called before the fight
These are the two bets this page published before the fight, quoted as they were.
| Bet as published | How it settled |
|---|---|
| Naoya Inoue (-10000) | Won: Inoue won by knockout |
| Under 3.5 rounds (-115) | Lost: the fight ended at 2:25 of Round 4, past the 3.5-round mark at 1:30 of the fourth |
A price of -10000 implied a 99.0% chance that Inoue would win, and it paid $1 on a $100 bet.
The undercard in Tokyo
Jin Sasaki beat Shoki Sakai by unanimous decision (116-112, 118-110, 117-111) at welterweight and moved to 19-1-1. At minimumweight, Yuni Takada took a split decision over Goki Kobayashi, 113-114, 116-111, 114-113.
What Inoue did next
Inoue’s next four fights after Kim, each as ESPN reported it:
| Date | Opponent | Result | Record after |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 4, 2025 | Ramon Cardenas, Las Vegas | Won by stoppage in Round 8 | 30-0 |
| September 14, 2025 | Murodjon Akhmadaliev, Nagoya | Won by unanimous decision (118-110, 118-110, 117-111) | 31-0 |
| December 27, 2025 | David Picasso, Riyadh | Won by unanimous decision (119-109, 120-108, 117-111) | 32-0 |
| May 2, 2026 | Junto Nakatani, Tokyo Dome | Won by unanimous decision (116-112, 115-113, 116-112) | 33-0 |
Cardenas knocked Inoue down at the end of the second round before Inoue stopped him 45 seconds into the eighth. Against Nakatani, in front of a sold-out crowd of 55,000, Inoue kept the WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO and Ring Magazine titles at 122 pounds.
No Naoya Inoue fight is on ESPN’s boxing schedule, updated September 24, 2026, so this page names no price. The record of the Picasso fight is in our Inoue vs. Picasso result, and the next big cards are in our boxing odds and predictions. To compare the books that price boxing, see our sportsbook reviews.