Riyadh Season’s final event of 2025 just took an unfortunate hit, as Jazza Dickens confirmed that his inaugural title defense against Hayato Tsutsumi is off after the latter suffered a cut in training.
Dickens (36-5, 15 KO) is in the midst of a career-best run, upsetting Zelfa Barrett in February before knocking out interim WBA super featherweight champion Albert Batyrgaziev in July. Lamont Roach Jr’s adventures in higher weight classes recently prompted the WBA to finally strip him of his 130-pound belt and upgrade Dickens in the process.
Tsutsumi (8-0, 5 KO) is a hot commodity even among Japan’s absolute smorgasbord of elite young talent, a former world youth champion who made his Riyadh debut in August with a whupping of Qais Ashfaq. Fingers crossed he heals up quick and finds a spot on an upcoming show.
Naoya Inoue defends his undisputed super bantamweight belts against WBC mandatory challenger Alan Picasso in the main event, while Junto Nakatani looks to tee up a superfight against “The Monster” in a co-feature against undefeated finisher Sebastian Hernandez Reyes and Kenshiro Teraji moves up to 115 to challenge IBF titlist Willibaldo Garcia and potentially pave the way to a blockbuster clash with Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez.
