WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani (pictured) will attempt to unify two 118-pound titles vs. his IBF counterpart Ryosuke Nishida in an all-Japanese battle on Sunday, June 8th at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. Nakatani-Nishida headlines a bantamweight tripleheader streaming live and exclusively on ESPN+ in the U.S. Nakatani (30-0, 23 KOs) is a three-weight champion and a consensus top ten-rated pound-for-pound fighter. Following a two-fight championship run at junior bantamweight that included a 2023 knockout of the year over Andrew Moloney, Nakatani made a splash in his bantamweight debut with a February 2024 knockout over Alexandro Santiago to win the WBC title. He stopped Vincent Astrolabio and Petch Sor Chitpattana to close out a banner 2024 before making his 2025 debut in February with a devastating third-round knockout over then-unbeaten Mexican standout David Cuellar.

 

Nishida (10-0, 2 KOs), a one-time high school amateur standout in Japan, turned pro in October 2019 with a first-round knockout. In his fourth pro fight, he won a decision over former champion Daigo Higa. Last May, he dethroned two-time champion Emmanuel Rodriguez by unanimous decision to capture the IBF title. Nishida made his first title defense in December with a seventh-round TKO over Thailand’s Anuchai Donsua. 

 

Japan currently has a stronghold on the bantamweight division with the WBA and WBO titles also held by Japense boxers, Seiya Tsutsumi and Yoshiki Takei respectively

 

UNDERCARD

 

Former kickboxing prodigy Tenshin Nasukawa (6-0, 2 KOs) takes on Victor Santillan (14-1, 5 KOs) in a ten rounder...

 

2021 world amateur champion Tomoya Tsuboi (1-0, 1 KO) steps up against Vietnam’s Van Thao Tran (18-1, 10 KOs) in another ten rounder.