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Nick Parkinson
Junto Nakatani sent out a chilling warning to his rival bantamweight champions after a body shot knocked out Vincent Astrolabio in the first round of his first defense of the WBC world title Saturday.
Nakatani (28-0, 21 KOs), 26, of Kanagawa, Japan, continued his scintillating form by quickly dispatching his first challenger at bantamweight at the Ryogoku Kokugikan National Sumo Arena in Tokyo.
ESPN’s No. 1 bantamweight has now won nine of his last 11 fights by stoppage after chopping down Astrolabio with a straight left that landed just above the belt with 23 seconds remaining in the first round.
Astrolabio, who lost a title shot against Jason Moloney by majority decision last year, tried to get up and beat the count, but he was in too much agony and sunk back to the canvas.
Just over a year ago, Nakatani produced a stunning left hook KO to finish Andrew Moloney at junior bantamweight. Nakatani then won the WBC bantamweight belt to become a three-weight world champion with a crushing sixth-round TKO of Alexandro Santiago in February. This time it was a single body shot that did the damage against Astrolabio (19-5, 14 KOs), of General Santos City, Philippines.
Nakatani, who trains in Los Angeles with coach Rudy Hernandez, is hoping to unify the world titles at bantamweight. All four world champions at bantamweight are from Japan.
As well as title unification fights against one of his rival champions — Yoshiki Takei (WBO), Ryosuke Nishida (IBF) and Takuma Inoue (WBA) — there is also the mouth-watering prospect of him facing another KO specialist, Naoya Inoue, the undisputed world junior featherweight champion, also from Japan and a world champion in four weight divisions.
“I thought it was going to be a long fight, but luckily I found the punch and got the win,” said Nakatani, who is also a former flyweight and junior bantamweight champion. “I’m thinking about unifying in this division or going up to the next division [where Naoya Inoue operates]. I really want to unify at this division. People want to see the fight versus Takuma Inoue.”
Olascuaga wins flyweight world title by KO
In only his eighth professional fight, Anthony Olascuaga knocked out Riku Kano to win the vacant WBO world flyweight title.
The 25-year-old American delivered a brilliant finish to win his first world title and defeat the home fighter. First, Olascuaga (7-1, 4 KOs) opened up Kano’s defense with a right hand that lowered Kano’s guard, then he threaded a pinpoint left uppercut to the jaw that dumped Kano on the canvas.
“I never thought I would become world champion, but I made it and I’m very happy,” said Olascuaga, who is from Los Angeles. .”It’s a dream come true. I picked my shots. I want to be an exceptional fighter coming forward.”
Olascuaga, who trains alongside Nakatani with Hernandez, was stopped in the ninth round by Kenshiro Teraji for the WBA-WBC junior flyweight title in April 2023. Olascuaga dropped a weight class for that first title opportunity, and he has now had his past three fights in Japan.
Southpaw Kano (22-5-2, 11 KOs), 26, from Hyogo, Japan, suffered his first defeat in six years.
Kosei Tanaka, of Japan, was due to make a first defense against Mexico’s Jonathan Rodriguez for the WBO junior bantamweight title, but the fight was called off after Rodriguez failed to make the weight limit by six pounds.
Former kickboxing champion Tenshin Nasukawa (4-0, 2 KOs), who faced Floyd Mayweather Jr. in an exhibition bout in 2018, instead faced Jonathan Rodriguez (same name, but different fighter to whom Tanaka was due to face) in a non-title junior featherweight bout. Nasukawa overwhelmed the Puerto Rico-born Rodriguez (17-2-1, 7 KOs), based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in three rounds.