Junto Nakatani successfully retained his WBA bantamweight title on July 20 against Vincent Astrolabio live from Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. Battling it out in front of his home country crowd, Japan’s undefeated three-division world champion stopped the Filipino contender in the opening round.
27-year-old southpaw Nakatani delivered a big left shot to the body dropping his opponent to the canvas. 27-year-old Astrolabio was hurt and wouldn’t get back on his feet. Referee Thomas Taylor waved the fight off at 2 minutes and 37 seconds into the first round.
With the victory by knockout, Junto Nakatani made the first successful defense of his belt and improved to 28-0, 21 KOs. Vincent Astrolabio dropped to 19-5, 14 KOs and didn’t succeed in his second attempt to become champion.
In the co-feature on the card, Anthony Olascuaga (7-1, 5 KOs) knocked out Japanese southpaw Riku Kano (22-5-2, 11 KOs) with a left uppercut. In addition to the win, the Los Angeles native became a new WBO flyweight champion.
Among other Nakatani vs Astrolabio results, former kickboxing champion Tenshin Nasukawa (4-0, 2 KOs) of Japan dominated and stopped Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Rodriguez Torres (17-3-1, 7 KOs) in the third round at bantamweight. Plus, Japanese Issei Aramoto (1-0, 1 KOs) successfully debuted as a pro boxer dropping Mongolia’s Mongontsooj Nandinerdene (2-2-1, 2 KOs) with a left hand in the sixth round at super middleweight.