Junto Nakatani, one of the best fighters in the world, retained his WBC bantamweight crown and stayed on course for possibly the biggest fight in Japanese history, against Naoya Inoue, with a sixth-round stoppage victory of Thai Petch Sor Chitpattana.
The defending champion, from Sagamihara in Kanagawa, scored his third quick win of 2024 and improved to 29-0 (22 KOs).
The challenger fell to 76-2 (53 KOs).
Both started conservatively but Chitpattana quivered from a first-round left hand. Nakatani, hands often down, studiously assessed what was in front of him.
He walked Chitpattana onto a left hand in the second, too, and stayed away from Chitpattana’s shots.
Nakatani upped his tempo in the third but remained patient and moved well with Chitpattana often only connecting with air or on the arms of Nakatani.
Junto landed two short right hooks and a right hand in the fourth, and a long left hand moments later.
Chitpattana stubbornly forged forwards through the fifth and sixth, gritting his teeth and firing with both hands but Nakatani’s work was cleaner and he was tagging Chitpattana with solid blows.
Halfway through the sixth, Nakatani dazed Chitpattana with a thunderous straight left hand and the dazed challenger was overwhelmed and floored by the follow up blows.
Chitpattana tried gamely to fight back, Nakatani was looking to land the big left again, swin ging and missing dramatically once, but he managed it in the dying moments of the round and Chitpattana hit the deck, rolled onto his back and the fight was waved off at 2:59 of the sixth.
The challenger had jived to the ring at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena, looking relaxed, but the 77-fight veteran – who seems to have just as many aliases – was ultimately added to Nakatani’s highlight reel of KOs.
Chitpattana was the WBC’s No. 1 contender, but two of his last three fights had been six-rounders and the only recognizable name on his record is Takuma Inoue, who beat Chitpattna on points over 12 rounds in 2018 in his only other fight outside of the Philippines.
It was Nakatani’s third win of the year, following a sixth-round victory over Alexandro Santiago and a first-round stoppage of Vincent Astrolabio.
At bantamweight, Tokyo’s Tenshin Nasukawa improved to 5-0 (1 KO) with a 10-round decision over Gerwin Asilo, from Bohol, in the Philippines, who is now 9-1 (4 KOs).
Nasukawa won my margins of 97-92 and 98-91 (twice).
It was steady work for Nasukawa, a southpaw who did most of his work off the jab, whether he threw singles, doubles or stepped in behind it.
Nasukawa also scored with lefts to the body and lead right hooks through the fifth round although he took a counter right for his troubles.
Overall, Asilo was too passive. He was caught off balance and dropped in the ninth although Nasukawa was cut by his left eye in the last from a headclash.
Nasukawa, a former kickboxer who five years ago was involved in a curious boxing exhibition with Floyd Mayweather, had been largely in control, however, and captured the WBO Asia Pacific bantamweight title.
By Tris Dixon