- Takei beat DeKang Wang via majority decision at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday — scores 77-75, 77-75, 76-76
- The former WBO bantamweight ruler looked stiff and was rattled by overhand rights in rounds 3 and 8 on the Inoue vs Nakatani undercard
- A planned move up to super bantamweight or back down towards Takuma Inoue's WBC bantamweight title now needs a serious rebuild
Right Then — That Wasn't The Tune-Up Anyone Wanted
Right then. Let's not beat around the bush. Yoshiki Takei was put on the Tokyo Dome bill on Saturday night to look the part. Big stage, big lights, the brothers Inoue carrying the show, and a former WBO bantamweight world champion expected to walk through eight rounds against an unheralded Chinese opponent. Tick the box, sign the cheque, head to the after-party.
He didn't tick the box. He scraped the box. And the scorecards backed it up — 77-75, 77-75, 76-76. Majority decision. One judge had it level. On the biggest night Japanese boxing has staged in decades, in front of a Tokyo Dome packed to the rafters for Naoya Inoue vs Junto Nakatani, Takei looked like a fighter who hadn't seen his best night in a long time.
What Actually Happened
Make no mistake — Takei started sharp. First round he looked like the version we remember from his WBO bantamweight days, working a clean two-piece, controlling distance, staying off the ropes. By the third he'd been pinned to the ropes and DeKang Wang had let two enormous overhand rights go that landed clean on the chin. Takei's legs went stiff. The arena saw it. The judges saw it. Anyone watching at home saw it.
From that moment Takei was fighting on nervous energy. His footwork looked tentative, his counters were short, and every time Wang pressed forward Takei was retreating into the same right hand that had hurt him. That's a problem. That's not a fighter who's ready for a top-ten name in the next twelve months.
The Wang Story Should Be Told Properly
DeKang Wang is not a household name. He came in as the away fighter, the supposed body, the warm-up. He left having forced a former world champion to rip up his game plan and grind out a wonky decision in a hostile arena. Wang got the eighth-round push he needed and let his hands go in the final stretch — straight rights that knocked Takei off balance and forced him backwards. Two judges still found a way to give Takei the win by two rounds. One didn't. There's no version of that fight where the official "winner" comes out ahead in the weeks after.
Where Does Takei Go From Here?
He'd been talked about as a potential challenger for Takuma Inoue's WBC bantamweight strap, especially after Takuma's career-best performance against Kazuto Ioka on the same bill. Forget that for now. Takei needs a confidence rebuild — a clean, controlled win against a name fighter at 122 or 118, ideally on home soil, where he can re-establish what makes him dangerous. The hand speed, the southpaw angles, the right hook to the body. They were all in storage on Saturday night.
The Prediction
He gets one more 122 outing in Tokyo or Osaka before any title talk gets dusted off. If he doesn't look levels above the next opponent, the conversation about him being a serious threat at WBC bantamweight ends. He's still got time, and he's a brilliant fighter on his night. But the Tokyo Dome on Saturday wasn't his night. And nights like that have a way of rattling around in a fighter's head longer than anyone would like.
He survived. That'll do for one weekend. From here on it's about re-announcing himself.