Japanese star Junto Nakatani has enjoyed a huge year, but 2025 is likely to get even bigger.
The pound-for-pound hero scored important victories over Alexandro Santiago (six rounds), Vincent Astrolabio (one round) and Tasana Salapat (CP Freshmart also six rounds) in 2024.
“Being able to fight three times is great and being able to get wins on those is even better,” Nakatani told BoxingScene.
Boxing in Japan is enjoying a boom period, events like the Tokyo Dome show with Naoya Inoue and Luis Nery in May and the multi-world title double bill in October both made headlines for the right reasons, and Nakatani is happy to be a part of that.
“I’m able to represent Japan and I’m very honoured to do so,” Nakatani said. “Being able to prove to the world that Japanese fighters are strong is definitely something that I’m very proud of.”
Nakatani is 29-0 (22 KOs). The 26-year-old southpaw, from Sagamihara, Kanagawa, is widely-heralded as a pound-for-pounder.
“I want to establish myself as a great bantamweight and possibly move up in weight but it will be a year of challenges for me,” he explained, looking ahead.
Nakatani, the WBC bantamweight champion, said he does not know the brilliant Inoue well, but understands that there is much speculation that they could meet in 2025. Nakatani, however, remains respectful, and might even have a longer-term vision for the contest that has whet the collective appetite of fight fans around the world.
“I’m not setting any timeframe; next year, maybe further on,” said Nakatani. “I really don’t know. But it’s something I’m looking forward to. It’ll be a big fight, not just in Japan, but around the world. He [Inoue]’s rated as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters and along with that I have a lot of respect for him. And I’m influenced by him, I want to improve my rankings in the pound-for-pound as well.”
Asked whether he could be the next king of Japanese boxing, to follow Inoue, Nakatani said; “There are a lot of talented boxers in Japan and it’s not to say that one is king as there is so many different styles. But if we can get the whole of boxing in Japan lifted up to a higher level, I think that would be our accomplishment that we want to achieve.”
As well as Inoue, there is a building clamor for Nakanati to face another of the sport’s elite fighters, and that is Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez.
Rodriguez is the WBC champion in the weight below Nakatani, Inoue is undisputed champion in the division above.
“It all depends on the timing because the weight classes are very close,” Nakatani said, of possibly meeting ‘Bam.’ “And even with Inoue we are very close in weight classes as well. Everything will depend on timing and I just have to be prepared to fight any of the fighters that are out there.”
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