Undefeated WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani (28-0, 21 KOs) quickly demolished Challenger Vincent Astrolabio (19-5, 14 KOs), stopping him in the first round with a simple left-hand body shot that sent him down on the canvas for the KO on Saturday night at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan.
Referee Thomas Taylor then halted the contest when it became clear that Astolabio wouldn’t be able to get up from the knockdown. The stoppage occurred at 2:37 of round one. Astrolabio did not attempt to get to his feet because he was dealing with too much pain from the body shot.
It was an odd fight with almost no action at all. Both fighters were cautious from the opening bell, throwing almost no punches until the 26-year-old Nakatani unleashed a left hand to the breadbasket, catching Astrolabio off guard and sending him to the canvas with a look of exquisite pain on his face.
The punch wasn’t thrown at any speed, and Astrolabio should have blocked it if he’d seen it coming. It appeared that he was asleep at the wheel, not fully ready for the punch because there had been almost none thrown by the champion Nakatani during the round.
There wasn’t much cheering from the fans at the Ryogoku Kokugikan because the fans clearly didn’t know what to think. It was just one punch thrown with moderate power from Nakatani, and it didn’t look like a hard one to Astrolabio’s belly.
It was a weird ending because the punch looked like it had nothing on it, but #1 ranked WBC challenger Astrolabio was caught off guard by it and hit the deck like a tranquilizer gun had shot him.
Compared to the action-packed undercard fights, the Nakatani-Astrolabio contest was a complete disappointment. It was boring until the end, and even the ending looked weird.
Nakatani is a good fighter, but he didn’t get a chance to show it tonight because there were so few punches thrown, and Astrolabio hit the deck from one shot that looked mild.
If Nakatani is going to stay at 118 for any time, hopefully, he faces better opposition than this. Astrolabio had recently been beaten by Jason Moloney, which made him a poor candidate to challenge for a world title.
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