SAGAMIHARA, Japan (news agencies) — One is known as “The Monster,” the other “Big Bang.”
The bout between champion boxers Naoya Inoue (30-0-0, 27 KOs) and Junto Nakatani (31-0-0, 24 KOs) is already being billed as Japan’s “fight of the century.” And the date hasn’t even been set.
Sports pundits are hailing what’s happening these days as the golden age of Japanese boxing. And this is a nation that has produced its share of Hall of Famers.
For a period last year, all four division bantamweight champions were Japanese. The Ring magazine’s latest Top Ten pound-for-pound ranking has three Japanese fighters, including Inoue and Nakatani.
Both Nakatani and Inoue have at least one fight before their dream match. But no one is expecting either of them to lose.
“That’s the way boxing works. Inoue has a story, and I have a story. When these stories clash, people are moved and gain courage. That’s where it is fun,” Nakatani said in an interview with media at M.T Boxing Gym southwest of Tokyo.
“For me, boxing is what you show in the ring all that you worked for and built every day. It’s a place where you express the life you have lived,” he said.
Nakatani smiles often, exuding a kindness that strikes a contrast to his almost scientific brutality in the ring.
If you ever get angry, you will lose, he said. One must keep control, as boxing is a contest of minds and strategies, doing exactly what your opponent does not want you to do.
Earlier this year, Inoue, the first Japanese fighter to be No. 1 in the pound-for-pound rankings, which evaluates boxers taking their weight and size into account, defended his super bantamweight title against Ramon Cardenas at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Inoue gave his fans a fright by getting knocked down in the second round but came back to soundly stop the fight in the eighth.
It was Inoue’s second fight in Las Vegas, with his debut coming four years ago in a seventh-round knockout of Australian Jason Moloney.
Inoue, one of only three male boxers in the four-belt era to unify at two weight classes, is scheduled for a September showdown in Tokyo against Murodjon Akhmadaliev of Uzbekistan.
Nakatani’s next opponent isn’t decided yet. But speculation is rife it might be Cardenas, allowing fans to analyze how Nakatani fares compared to Inoue.
The buzz is spreading to a fan base previously not associated with boxing in Japan, like women and children.
