Dsalita Junto Nakatani and Kosei Tanaka won world titles, while Takuma Inoue retained his in an impressive night of performances for the three Japanese stars in Tokyo.
Nakatani (27-0, 20 KO) made an emphatic move to the bantamweight division to win a world title in a third weight class, pretty well dominating and stopping Alexandro Santiago in the sixth round to win the WBC belt.
Nakatani, 26, keeps looking like a truly special fighter as his career rolls along, and he has a strong argument for a top 10 pound-for-pound ranking — for whatever that’s worth — and looks like clearly the world’s top bantamweight immediately upon arriving in the class.
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THE HIGHLIGHT REEL KING @BoxerJunto | #AndNew pic.twitter.com/H5SAvqFSmA
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) February 24, 2024
Inoue scored a rare knockout, and it was a doozy, a brutal body shot that put Jerwin Ancajas down for the count in round nine, allowing Inoue to retain his WBA bantamweight title.
Inoue (19-1, 5 KO) and Ancajas (34-4-2, 23 KO) had put on a rugged, back-and-forth, and highly competitive fight to that point, but Inoue just landed a peach of a shot to the liver and closed things out in triumphant fashion.
BRUTAL BODY SHOT SEALS THE DEAL @TakumaInoue_122 x #InoueAncajas pic.twitter.com/cVcrH7pr83
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) February 24, 2024
Tanaka made some history, winning a world title in a fourth weight class by beating Christian “Rocky” Bacasegua for the vacant WBO super flyweight title.
Tanaka (20-1, 11 KO) had won world titles at 105, 108,and 112 prior to this, and had fallen short in his first bid for a world title at 115, but came through today with a clear victory on scores of 116-111, 117-110, and 119-108.
Bacasegua (22-5-2, 9 KO) gave this a strong effort, but was just a crucial bit out of his depth. Tanaka was credited with a knockdown in round eight after Bacasegua’s glove touched the canvas.
That’s a NASTY Tanaka uppercut. #InoueAncajas x #SantiagoNakatani pic.twitter.com/Wl22FgIfj6
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) February 24, 2024
Bantamweight Riku Masuda bounced back from his first pro loss with a first round body shot knockout of tough veteran Jonas Sultan, who had never been stopped before. The 26-year-old Masuda is now 4-1 (4 KO), while the 32-year-old Sultan falls to 19-7 (11 KO).
AND WE’RE OFF!! WHAT A BODY SHOT #InoueAncajas #SantiagoNakatani | Live on @ESPNPlus pic.twitter.com/SY2Wz8MR9P
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) February 24, 2024
