May 3 (Reuters) - Japanese ⁠boxer Naoya Inoue retained his undisputed super bantamweight ⁠world title with a unanimous decision victory over ‌compatriot Junto Nakatani after a gripping 12-round contest in Tokyo on Saturday.

The 33-year-old, famously known as 'The Monster', extended his winning streak ​in world title bouts to 28 ⁠as judges scored the ⁠fight 116-112, 115-113 and 116-112 in his favour.

Both boxers ⁠entered ‌the bout unbeaten at 32-0 in a contest which was billed as the biggest ⁠boxing match in Japanese history after Nakatani ​moved up a ‌division late last year.

Inoue charged early before Nakatani ⁠appeared to ​close the gap in the latter half of the fight as the pace intensified, but a clash of ⁠heads late in the 10th round ​opened a cut above the challenger's eye and stalled his momentum.

"Today I executed the plan that I'd been saying ⁠before the fight, to stay focused on winning, to make sure I was the one who came out as the winner," Inoue said.

"As you all know, ​Nakatani is a mentally strong ⁠boxer. The fact that he is in the (top 10) ​pound-for-pound rankings makes this win worthwhile."

The ‌win improved Inoue's overall record ​to 33 victories, with 27 knockouts.

(Reporting by Suramya Kaushik in Bengaluru; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)