Junto Nakatani will defend his WBC bantamweight title against Vincent Astrolabio today in Tokyo, headlining a card that will stream live on ESPN+ starting at 5 am ET.
Nakatani (27-0, 20 KO) claimed the title in his last fight, stopping Alexandro Santiago in the sixth round on Feb. 24. He had previously won world titles at flyweight and super flyweight.
Astrolabio (19-4, 14 KO) comes in from the Philippines as a huge underdog, but has the power to be dangerous. He rattled off wins over Guillermo Rigondeaux and Nikolai Potapov before a majority decision loss to Jason Moloney last year, and won an eliminator in his last outing in Aug. 2023.
Also on the card: Riku Kano (22-4-2, 11 KO) and Anthony Olascuaga (6-1, 4 KO) meet for the vacant WBO flyweight title, and crossover combat star Tenshin Nasukawa (3-0, 1 KO) takes on Jonathan Rodriguez (17-2-1, 7 KO) in a 10-round super bantamweight fight, which on paper is Nasukawa’s toughest boxing test to date. The planned WBO super flyweight title fight featuring Kosei Tanaka making a defense was canceled after his opponent missed weight.