Teddy Atlas has assessed Junto Nakatani’s chances as he attempts to dethrone undisputed super-bantamweight king Naoya Inoue this Saturday.
The pair will square off at the Tokyo Dome, Japan, where Inoue overcame a shock knockdown to successfully defend his four world titles against Luis Nery in 2024.
Since then, ‘The Monster’ has made five consecutive defences of his undisputed crown at 122lbs, including an eighth-round finish over Ramon Cardenas last year.
Again, Inoue was compelled to climb off the canvas and cement his stoppage victory, but did so with tremendous composure and intelligence.
The 33-year-old then experienced far less resistance in his last outing against David Picasso, comfortably outpointing the previously unbeaten Mexican in December.
Nakatani, on the other hand, was introduced to a hard-fought encounter on the same card, resulting in a debatable unanimous decision victory over Sebastian Hernandez.
Prior to that, ‘Big Bang’ had become a three-division world champion while never really needing to display such resolve.
It could, therefore, either work to his advantage or detriment that the 28-year-old came through a torrid battle with Hernandez just over five months before facing Inoue.
Assessing the situation on his YouTube channel, Atlas gives the challenger a genuine chance but questions whether even the best version of Nakatani can defeat Inoue, a consensus top two pound-for-pound star.
“Listen, Inoue’s a big [betting] favourite … I think Nakatani’s a live dog. You have to like Inoue, it’s hard to go against him.
“This fight will come down to geography. Who fights at the range, the distance, the location that better-suits them for their talent?
“Inoue wants to be close; Nakatani wants to be [fighting] at a distance. And he’s a southpaw. He wants to make it hard for Inoue to make ground.
“Nakatani took a lot of punishment [against Hernandez]. Has he had enough time to recover? He went in that ring and came out of it with probably a little less of himself.
“At 28, he’s young enough to handle that – youth can do amazing things. I give Nakatani a shot.”
From a psychological perspective, Atlas believes that Nakatani has only benefited from his fight with Hernandez.
Whether his body has been given sufficient time to recover, though, is another matter entirely.
