Naoya Inoue vs Alan David Picasso Preview Dec. 27th, 2025
Unbeaten, undisputed Super Bantamweight Champion Naoya Inoue of Japan will enter the ring in Saudi Arabia this Saturday, December 27th to defend his titles against undefeated Alan David Picasso of Mexico. The 12-round encounter can be seen live in most nations on DAZN pay-per-view. Picasso, who’s also known as David Picasso, Alan Romero and David Rey Picasso, was last in the ring in July when he beat Kyonosuke Kameda by a controversial 10-round majority decision. Inoue’s last bout was a unanimous nod over former IBF and WBA Super Bantamweight Champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev of Uzbekistan in September. Apparently this card will be kicking off at about 4am ET. In his previous outing in May, Inoue picked himself up from the canvas in the second round and came storming back to drop Ramon Cardenas in the seventh round and stop him in the eighth.
Inoue vs Picasso Betting Odds
Here are the betting odds from online sportsbook BetOnline.ag (full review here).
- Alan David Picasso +1600
- Naoya Inoue -5000
My Pick
The 32-year-old Inoue is just the second male Japanese boxer to win world titles in four weight divisions to join Kazuto Ioka in that feat. Inoue was also a world beltholder at 108, 115 and 118 lbs and has been an undisputed champion in two different divisions, bantamweight and super bantamweight. As a bantamweight, Inoue fought in the World Boxing Super Series Bantamweight Tournament and won the IBF belt when he stopped Emmanuel Rodriguez in the second round in May, 2019.
Six months later he beat Nonito Donaire by unanimous decision in a classic battle to capture the tournament as well as Donaire’s WBA Super World Belt. Inoue had originally won the regular WBA title in May, 2018 when he stopped Jamie McDonnell in 112 seconds. After beating Donaire, Inoue defended the belts against Jason Moloney, Michael Dasmarinas and Aran Dipaen with stoppages in the seventh, eighth and third rounds respectively.
Inoue and Donaire met in a long-awaited rematch in June, 2022 with Inoue adding the WBC Bantamweight Title to his collection when he stopped the Filipino Flash in the second round. He then became undisputed with an 11th-round stoppage of Paul Butler in December, 2022. He enters the ring this Saturday with a perfect mark of 31-0 with 27 Ko’s. Inoue is also a former WBO Jr. Bantamweight and WBC Junior Flyweight Titleholder who has all the tools to be considered one of the world’s top pound-for-pound boxers. He stands 5-feet-5-inches tall with a 67.5-inch reach.
Inoue defended his Junior Bantamweight Crown seven times before moving up in weight. The Japanese star became a world champion in just his sixth pro fight when he stopped Adrian Hernandez in the sixth round for his WBC Junior Flyweight Belt in May, 2014. He defended it once then moved up to super flyweight and took the title from Omar Narvaez by second-round KO in December, 2014. More recently, he stopped former world champion TJ Doheny in the seventh round in August 2024 and halted Ye Joon Kim in the fourth round this January to defend his Super Bantamweight Belts.
The Japanese star was dropped for the first time in his career in the first round by Luis Nery in May, 2024 but then decked Nery in the second and fifth rounds before stopping him in the sixth. Inoue had halted Marlon Tapales in the 10th round for the WBA and IBF Belts in December, 2023 and the former Undisputed Bantamweight King stopped Stephen Fulton in the eighth round five months earlier to take his WBO and WBC titles. Known as ‘The Monster,’ Inoue has been a sensation in his homeland since turning pro in 2012 and has boxed 193 rounds since.
He’s got dynamite in his fists with an 87.1 per cent knockout ratio but also has fine boxing skills. Inoue has stopped his last 12 opponents and has gone the distance just once since mid-2016, which was the first fight against Donaire in 2019, but he did drop him in the 11thround. Inoue enjoyed a fine amateur career and is now 26-0 with 22 Ko’s in world title fights. He’s also beaten the likes of Juan Carlos Payano, Ryoichi Taguchi, Kohei Kono, Antonio Nieves, David Carmona and Ricardo Rodriguez. He’s also 14-0 with 11 Ko’s against current or former world champions in Akhmadaliev, Doheny, Nery, Tapales, Fulton, Butler, Donaire, Rodriguez, Taguchi, Hernandez, Narvaez, Kono, McDonnell and Payano.
Picasso will be fighting for the 34th time as a pro despite turning just 25 years of age. He made his pro debut in 2017 as a teenager and has boxed 185 rounds since. He makes the ring walk with a near-perfect mark of 32-0-1 with the lone blemish on his record being a four-round technical draw with Martin Jiminez Delgado in March, 2018 when Delgado was originally credited with a fourth-round TKO but the decision was overturned. Picasso measures 5-feet-8-inches tall with a 70-inch reach for a three-inch edge in height on Inoue as well as 2.5-inches in reach.
As far as power is concerned he’s slightly above average as 53.1 per cent of his wins have come by stoppage and he’s gone the distance in four of his past six contests. At one point in his career Picasso had halted 10 of his last 12 opponents. Picasso captured the vacant WBC Youth Inter-Continental Jr Featherweight Title in 2019 via a 10-round unanimous decision over Anthony Jiminez Salas and added the vacant Inter-Continental Featherweight Crown the next year with a unanimous nod over Jesus Ouijada.
Picasso added the vacant NABF Jr Featherweight Belt in 2022 with a fourth-round stoppage of David Reyes Cota and then took the WBC Silver Crown in 2023 via a sixth-round TKO over Sabelo Ngebinyana. He took a step up in class in 2024 when he beat Azat Hovhannisyan by 12-round unanimous decision to defend his Silver Title. None of Picasso’s first 10 opponents had a winning record when stepping into the ring and his biggest wins to date have been against Kameda, Hovhannisyan, Carlos Alberto Ocampo, Victor Proa, Jesus Gomez Quintana, Edixon Perez, Kevin Villanueva, Yeison Vargas, Erik Ruiz and Damien Vazquez.
Prediction…
Picasso is the mandatory WBC challenger for Inoue and the champion needs to get past him to set up an all-Japanese showdown fellow superstar Junto Nakatani next year. Inoue is one of the world’s most feared and top pound-for-pound boxers while Picasso is seven years younger and has a solid future ahead of him. Inoue has been susceptible to left hooks lately as Luis Nery and Ramon Cardenas both dropped him early in their fights but Picasso isn’t really known as a power puncher. While Inoue possesses great boxing skills, ring intelligence and power he certainly can’t afford to take anybody lightly though. The champion is a fantastic body puncher who changes angles, speed and power when letting his hands go and as long as he doesn’t deviate from his strengths and get careless he should retain his belts this weekend. Of course with Inoue a stoppage is never a bad bet but this could be a relatively close fight with Picasso having his moments.
Inoue’s power and boxing skills rule, but it could go the distance.
Play Inoue -5000 @ BetOnline.ag
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Alan David Picasso betting • Naoya Inoue betting