Next week, Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani are set to collide in the biggest fight in the history of Japanese boxing, with the undisputed super-bantamweight title on the line.
Inoue is one of just three fighters to have become a multi-divisional undisputed world champion in the four-belt era, joined by only Terence Crawford and Oleksandr Usyk in that extremely elite club.
At super-bantamweight, it took ‘The Monster’ just two fights to capture all four belts, defeating a pair of unified champions in Stephen Fulton and Marlon Tapales, and he has since gone on to defend his titles on six occasions.
Meanwhile, Nakatani vacated the unified bantamweight world titles and debuted up at 122lbs back in December, but underwhelmed on his divisional debut against Mexico’s Sebastian Hernandez Reyes.
As a result, fans are now expecting that Inoue will retain his titles once again, in what looks to be the toughest test of his career thus far. However, trainer Garcia warned on The Spit Bucket podcast that Nakatani’s power could prove less forgiving than that of the previous fighters who have dropped ‘The Monster.’
“He has a challenge against Nakatani. People might be counting him out but Nakatani is a very dangerous fighter. His style is one of those tough, strong fighters that has tremendous power.
“I think Nakatani is going to put up a great fight, he has got great power and Inoue has been dropped a couple of times. I don’t think that the fighters that Inoue has been dropped by are as good or have as much power as Nakatani has.
“He [Nakatani] is a solid guy, man, and he is going to put up a good fight. I still pick Inoue, yes, but it is going to be a really good fight.”
Inoue has hit the deck against both Luis Nery and Ramon Cardenas and will be hoping to prove more elusive when he and Nakatani collide on Saturday, May 2, at the Tokyo Dome.
