AFTER becoming apparent in recent weeks, the well-rumoured all-Japanese showdown between Tenshin Nasukawa and Takuma Inoue is nearing an announcement. Now, it has been revealed that the bantamweight duo are expected to collide with one another in November, atop a card featuring two additional world title bouts.
Earlier this month, Boxing News reported that the path had cleared for Tenshin Nasukawa, 7-0 (2 KOs), to take on Takuma Inoue, 20-2 (5 KOs), once Junto Nakatani’s inevitable title vacation was formally announced.
This month, in the updated WBA rankings, Nakatani was installed as the number one contender in the super-bantamweight division, all but confirming that whispers of his decision to vacate the WBC and IBF bantamweight titles were true.
After weeks of fans reading the tea leaves and speculating, it will indeed be Nasukawa and Inoue who meet for the vacant WBC title. According to Yahoo Japan, the deal for that fight is now in the ‘final stages of negotiations’.
“Negotiations are in the final stages for the WBC World Bantamweight Championship bout between Tenshin Nasukawa and Takuma Inoue to take place in the Kanto region in November,” it was revealed.
With the #1 and #2 positions in the IBF rankings left vacant, fourth-ranked Inoue also had the option to compete against Mexico’s number three-rated contender, Jose Salas Reyes, 16-0 (10 KOs).
However, after Inoue opted to pursue the WBC crown and ‘give the fans the match that they want’, Salas is instead expected to meet with fellow southpaw, Riku Masuda, 8-1 (8 KOs), in a bout that is anticipated to land on the Tenshin-Inoue undercard.
Meanwhile, Boxing News has also been informed that Seiyo Tsutsumi, 12-0-3 (8 KOs), will attempt to reclaim the full WBA bantamweight world title on the bill, after being named champion-in-recess and being replaced by Houston’s Antonio Vargas, 19-1-1 (11 KOs), earlier this year.
