Tenshin Nasukawa vs Juan Francisco Estrada Official for April 11 WBC Eliminator

April 11 Tokyo bout determines next WBC title challenger

Tenshin Nasukawa and Juan Francisco Estrada are officially set to meet in a WBC bantamweight title eliminator on April 11 at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo.

Teiken Promotions confirmed the bout at a press conference in Tokyo, formalizing a matchup that will headline an Amazon Prime Japan tripleheader. The winner will become the mandatory challenger to WBC 118-pound titlist Takuma Inoue, giving the bout immediate significance in the division’s title picture.

Nasukawa, 7-1 with two knockouts, is coming off the first defeat of his professional combat sports career. He dropped a decision to Inoue last November in a vacant WBC bantamweight title fight, a setback that halted his rapid climb after transitioning from kickboxing.

The defeat marked his first in any sanctioned combat sport across boxing, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts. At Wednesday’s press conference, Nasukawa admitted the defeat was difficult to process but insisted he has used the time since to improve physically and mentally as he prepares for what he called a defining fight.

Estrada, 45-4 with 28 knockouts, enters as the most experienced opponent of Nasukawa’s boxing tenure. The former two-division champion unified titles at flyweight and later held lineal recognition at junior bantamweight before his June 2024 knockout defeat to Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez.

That loss ended a lengthy stay near the top of the 115-pound division. Estrada returned last June with a 10-round unanimous decision over Karim Arce in Hermosillo and now makes his first career appearance in Japan.

The undercard will feature a 115-pound bout between Tomoya Tsuboi, currently rated #1 by the WBC, and former 108-pound titleholder Pedro Guevara. Also scheduled is a flyweight contest between former titleholders Kyosuke Takami and Angel Ayala.

Takuma Inoue is scheduled to make a voluntary WBC title defense on May 2 in Tokyo. The winner of Nasukawa-Estrada will be positioned as his next mandatory challenger.