Earlier today in Tokyo, Junto Nakatani produced yet another hugely impressive performance in stopping countryman Ryosuke Nishida to unify two of the world’s bantamweight titles. In the all-southpaw showdown, Nakatani busted up Nishida’s right eye and the fight was stopped at the conclusion of round six.
Nakatani now holds the WBC and IBF bantamweight titles and he improves to 31-0(24). Nishida falls to 10-1(2).
What was on paper a close, hard fight, instead turned out to be yet another Nakatani masterclass, although a game Nishida did have his moments in what was an exciting shootout. The pace set from the start was red-hot, with “Big Bang,” as Nakatani is known, launching hooks and uppercuts, plenty of which landed on Nishida.
Nishida tried going to the body, where he had some success, but this would prove to be another dominant showing from Nakatani. Round three saw Nakatani explode with power shots, and Nishida was not throwing anywhere near as many punches as his rival was. Nishida’s right eye was closing in round five and the doctor had a look at the injury, deciding for the moment to allow the action to carry on.
But round six saw Nakatani show no remorse, this as he targeted the eye. Nishida was taking too many nasty shots and in-between rounds his corner did the wise thing in calling a halt to the fight.
Nakatani didn’t put a foot wrong today, and he really has to be on everybody’s pound-for-pound list now, if he wasn’t before. Nakatani has yet to be taken the distance in a bantamweight fight.
After his latest triumph, Nakatani asked Naoya Inoue to “wait for me at 122 pounds,” and as everyone knows, Inoue Vs. Nakatani is the mega fight we all want to see. Judging by not only today’s sizzling display from Nakatani, but by some of his other previous showings, “Monster” Inoue could be pushed to his considerable limits by his rival Japanese star when the fight happens. You could perhaps now argue, maybe for the first time, that Inoue Vs. Nakatani is a 50 50 fight.
