Japanese Boxing’s Next Mega-Showdown: Inoue and Nakatani Tease Year-End Tokyo Thriller
It’s absolutely no secret that superb unbeaten little giants of the sport Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani are on a collision course and have been for some months now. The two brilliant ring operators who both seem to be able to pretty much do it all and, between them, boast quite amazing numbers at 61-0(51), will very likely rumble next year some time in what could prove to be the biggest fight in Japanese boxing history.
Before then, Inoue has two upcoming fights to take care of. “The Monster” will meet WBA mandatory challenger Murodjon Akhmadaliev in a defence of his four 122 pound belts in September (this a potentially tough night for Inoue), and he is then reported to be close to defending against unbeaten Mexican Alan David Picasso, this in December, also in Tokyo.
Nakatani’s High-Stakes Super-Bantamweight Debut
Now, as per a news story from Yahoo Japan, Nakatani, the reigning WBC and IBF champ at 118 pounds, is close to finalizing a deal to fight Ramon Cardenas in his super-bantamweight debut on the same card. Cardenas, 26-2(14) is of course the warrior Inoue fought last time out, this in May. And what a slugfest that fight was, with Inoue having to get up from an early knockdown to come on and stop the game and very dangerous Mexican in the eighth round.
December 27: A Dual Headline in Tokyo
Cardenas absolutely earned himself further big fights with his gutsy performance in May, and now he may well be paid quite handsomely for the Nakatani fight. Nakatani has looked spiteful, powerful, and almost flawless in his last few fights, and it will be interesting to see if he can take his speed and power up to the 122 pound weight class. If he can, look out the super-bantams; Inoue included.
It really could prove to be quite a fight card in December in Tokyo, with the reported plan to see Japanese fighters matched with Mexican fighters and with Mexican-American warriors.
We could get Inoue-Picasso as the headline act, with Nakatani-Cardenas as the chief support, with more fights to be announced in due course. The target date is said to be December 27th, and what an end of the year big bang Inoue and Nakatani could give us whilst fighting on the same card, this as they inch ever closer to going to war with each other.