Today, in the main event in Tokyo, Japan, and in the final fight of the two-day boxing extravaganza staged in the country, WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani scored a very impressive sixth round TKO over a game but out-skilled Petch Sor Chitpattna.
In the clash of southpaws, Nakatani scored two heavy knockdowns over his Thai challenger, the champion’s sharp and punishing left hand doing the damage.
Chitpattna made it back to his feet after the first knockdown, and to his credit he dug in and tried to fight back, but then another, even more crushing left hand to the head drained the challenger of everything he had left, and this time Chitpattna rolled onto his back, his challenge over.
Time was 2:59 of round six and the superb Nakatani is now 29-0(22), with his last three fights of this year ending via stoppage. Chitpattna falls to en eye-catching 76-2(53) with most of his fights having taken place in Thailand.
Nakanati, in his prime, we think, at age 26, was exciting as well as skilled today. Making it a fun fight for a while, Nakatani was caught a little, this as the 30 year old challenger swung as best he could, his left hand landing a couple of times.
But Nakatani was in charge all the way, and it looked like he could have opened up and stopped Chitpattna pretty any time he wanted to. Nakatani, who fights with his hands held low, his incredible reflexes doing the work for him, was landing with frequency by the third and fourth rounds, and he clearly wanted another KO win.
This duly came, in style, in round six. Nakatani might just be about as flawless a fighter as you can point to today, this side of……….Naoya Inoue. It’s no secret these two Japanese stars and pound-for-pound operators are on a collision course. Nakatani moves on to who knows who next (maybe newly crowned WBA bantamweight champ Seiya Tsutsumi, who upset “The Monster’s” brother Takuma Inoue yesterday), but that massive all-Japanese super-fight will surely happen next year.
And, as super-special as Inoue and Nakatani both are, who on earth can pick a winner here?
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