Junto Nakatani made a fourth successful defense of his WBC bantamweight title in Tokyo, exploding past David Cuellar late in the third round with two knockdowns for a knockout victory.
The 23-year-old Cuellar (28-1, 18 KO) was acquitting himself pretty well before Nakatani (30-0, 23 KO) just showed exactly why he’s who he is, ripping through the Mexican challenger with shots to the body and head that suddenly overwhelmed the young fighter.
It was once again just Nakatani being Nakatani, as he waited, picked his spot, and proved destructive.
The future for Nakatani still appears to be an eventual move up to super bantamweight and a possible huge fight with Naoya Inoue, which would see Nakatani chasing a world title in a fourth division, but it does look like he’ll look to stay at bantamweight for at least one more fight.
Nakatani was joined in the ring by IBF titleholder Ryosuke Nishida, and the two agreed that a unification bout should come next. With Tenshin Nasukawa seemingly targeting WBO titleholder Yoshiki Takei, another big unification fight could be there this year, too.