{"id":97025,"date":"2025-05-13T03:36:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T03:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/97025\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T03:36:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T03:36:07","slug":"more-credit-if-we-beat-him-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/97025\/","title":{"rendered":"‘More credit if we beat him now’"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Junto Nakatani<\/a> took notice, just like the rest of the boxing world.<\/p>\n

For the second time in a year, an overly aggressive Naoya Inoue got dropped by a counter left hook in the opening minutes of a fight. <\/p>\n

Days after the undisputed junior featherweight champion Inoue survived a second-round knockdown <\/a>and outlasted an incredibly brave and game Ramon Cardenas, the southpaw knockout artist Nakatani (30-0, 23 KOS) discussed the planned fight against his countryman in what is shaping up to be the biggest boxing match in Japanese history.
\u201cIt was a big surprise when he got knocked down. It was shocking,\u201d Nakatani told The Ring<\/a> through a translator after a training session at the L.A. Boxing Gym.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was fighting in the United States. It’s a different environment. It could have contributed to him being knocked down. He has great experience, though. You can tell he was alert, listening to the eight-count and got up. After the knockdown, Inoue beat him up with his own knockdown and eventually knocked him out in the eighth round. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve seen him get hit with the left hook a couple of times. It was a good shot from Cardenas. I can’t just depend on one punch. I have to throw more punches and in combinations. I am ready to go toe to toe and engage with him. I am prepared for any style that he wants to bring in the fight. We are going to have several game plans to prepare for Inoue. I am going to train for anything and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nakatani, 27, agreed with head coach Rudy Hernandez that he needs to fight Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs) sooner rather than later, before the 32-year-old goes through more wars and shows signs of deterioration in looming fights against Murodjon Akhmadaliev and Nick Ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would rather fight Inoue now than tomorrow,\u201d Hernandez told The Ring. \u201cI want to get a better version of Inoue than an older version. If we wait until next year, the excuse will be that Inoue got older. There is more credit to it if we beat him now. Anytime a fighter gets a bit older, that’s the first excuse. They’ll say, \u2018It would have been different if he were younger.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

Nakatani and Hernandez also echoed the same sentiment, that if they get the chance to drop Inoue, they must staple him to the ground and stop him soon after.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Nakatani landed a similar crushing overhand counter left that Cardenas and Luis Nery did to Inoue when \u201cBig Bang\u201d scored a knockout of the year against Andrew Moloney in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time Inoue gets dropped, he gets pissed and makes the opponent pay for it,\u201d said Hernandez. \u201cHe can get dropped, but it\u2019s not going to dictate who he is. We intend to drop him so he doesn’t get up. If he gets up, we\u2019re going to have to worry about him \u2014 all you have to do is piss him off. Getting dropped makes him meaner. When the bell rings, we\u2019re all even until someone gets broken down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nakatani, a three-division champion and WBC bantamweight title holder, is preparing to face IBF 118-pound titlist Ryosuke Nishida (10-0, 2 KOs) on June 8 at Ariake Colosseum in Japan. Since the matchup features The Ring\u2019s top two-rated bantamweights, the vacant Ring title also will be on the line. <\/p>\n

Nakatani said this could be his last fight at 118. He prefers to fight twice at 122 against right-handers before the Inoue fight happens, potentially in May.<\/p>\n

Nakatani is The Ring\u2019s No. 7-ranked pound-for-pound fighter, and Inoue is No. 2. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery boxing fan wants to see us fight,\u201d said Nakatani. <\/p>\n

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring\u2019s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Junto Nakatani took notice, just like the rest of the boxing world. For the second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,10188,10181,10187,10186,10179,4496,10182,10183,10184,10185,10180,10193,10192,10175,10173,10174,10190,10176,10172,10194,10189,79,10191,10171,10178,16,15,10177],"class_list":{"0":"post-97025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-results","18":"tag-boxing-schedule","19":"tag-boxing-videos","20":"tag-disqualification","21":"tag-draw","22":"tag-fight","23":"tag-fighter","24":"tag-fighter-news","25":"tag-knockout","26":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","27":"tag-ring","28":"tag-ring-magazine","29":"tag-split-decision","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-technical-knockout","32":"tag-the-ring","33":"tag-top-fighters","34":"tag-uk","35":"tag-united-kingdom","36":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114498436324662960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}