Takanori Ito To Defend LIDET UWF World Title Against Naoya Nomura On December 30

The next LIDET UWF World Title match is set.

Takanori Ito is in for one of the toughest fights of his career come December 30 when he defends his LIDET UWF World Championship against Naoya Nomura at GLEAT 2026 Final.

This announcement comes within weeks of Ito’s previous successful defense against former WWE Superstar Simon Gotch, whom he beat at GLEAT Ver. EX, the same show that saw Atsushi Kotoge win the G-REX Championship and So Daimonji and Soma Watanabe win the G-INFINITY tag belts.

During GLEAT’s recent fan event, during which Van Vert Jack won the G-RUSH belt in the main event, former All Japan standout and occasional GLEAT participant Naoya Nomura arrived to make his initial challenge. The challenge was accepted, and the date has been announced for this momentous match.

Takanori Ito initially won this title off Soma Watanabe back on April 8, thus becoming the first man to hold the belt for a second time. So far during this reign, he’s taken on the likes of Seichi Ikemoto, Daisuke Sekimoto, and the aforementioned Simon Gotch, and he’s put away them all either by TKO or Ref stoppage.

Alternatively, Nomura has largely been dominant during his brief appearances with GLEAT. This year alone, he sports a 4-1 record, including a 2-0 record in UWF match rules, which will be the same rules his upcoming title bout will be fought under.

GLEAT’s UWF matches are the latest evolution of the shoot style that first came around in Japan back in the 1980s. Each match under UWF rules include a time limit, though they rarely last long enough to reach them, they never end in pinfall, and each wrestler starts the match with five points and subsequently lose points via rope break, getting knocked down for extended counts, and committing fouls. Think of them as being similar to Ring of Honor’s Pure matches.

Former LIDET UWF World Champions include Fujita Jr. Hayato, Soma Watanabe, and Katsuhiko Nakajima.

For more news from across Japanese professional wrestling, you can click here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Takanori Ito vs. Naoya Nomura as soon as we hear more.