IBF bantamweight champion Ryosuke Nishida, out of action since fighting through serious facial damage to upset Emmanuel Rodriguez in May, will make his inaugural title defense on December 15th against Thailand’s Anuchai Donsua.
Donsua (16-0, 7 KO) sits at no. 14 in the IBF rankings and has your prototypical Thai record; four of his wins, including his most recent, came over debuting opponents and he’s beaten just two opponents over .500. He shouldn’t pose much of a threat to Nishida (9-0, 1 KO), a top operator who beat Daigo Higa in just his fourth pro fight and took home a convincing decision over Rodriguez.
Nishida claims that he wants a piece of Junto Nakatani early next year, which would make sense after Takuma Inoue’s recent defeat sank Nakatani’s pursuit of an Inoue double faeture. That said, Julius Julianis claims that Nishida fighting under Kameda Promotions would make putting together a unification with anyone besides Seiya Tsutsumi difficult.
In a genuinely well-matched scrap, 24-year-old light flyweight contender Thanongsak Simsri (36-1, 33 KO) meets former minimumweight champion Masataka Taniguchi (19-4, 13 KO). Simsri’s only prior loss came at the hands of Masamichi Yabuki in 2022.
Finally, Riku Kunimoto (12-1, 6 KO) attempts to avenge his only career defeat in a middleweight clash with Kazuto Takesako (17-2-1, 15 KO).