Alexandro Santiago, Junto Nakatani make weight for bantamweight title clash
Junto Nakatani made weight with room to spare.
The former two-division titleholder checked in at a healthy 117½ pounds ahead of his bid to claim a third divisional belt. He will face WBC bantamweight titlist Alexandro Santiago, who weighed 117¾ pounds during Friday’s weigh-in as administered by the Japanese Boxing Commission.
Their scheduled 12-round contest will headline a title fight tripleheader Saturday evening (local time) from the famed Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan. ESPN+ will stream the bout live in the U.S. beginning at 4:00 a.m. ET.
Tijuana’s Santiago (28-3-5, 14 knockouts) is ranked No. 3 at 118 by The Ring. Nakatani (26-0, 19 KOs) is currently No. 2 at 115, where he previously held the WBO title. The 26-year-old southpaw from Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan takes his 5-foot-7½ frame to bantamweight for the first time in his nine-year career. He also previously held the WBO flyweight title.
Saturday will mark the first title defense for Santiago, who won the belt in a 12-round unanimous decision win over former four-division champion Nonito Donaire on July 29 in Las Vegas. The bout versus Nakatani will mark the first outside the Americas for the 28-year-old Santiago, who has won his last four starts.
Also on the show, Takuma Inoue (18-1, 4 KOs) will attempt his first defense of his WBA bantamweight title. He weighed 117¾ pounds, as did Filipino challenger Jerwin Ancajas (34-3-2, 23 KOs), for their scheduled 12-round contest.
Takuma Inoue (left) and Jerwin Ancajas weigh in. (Photo by Naoki Fukuda)
This bout was originally due to take place on November 15, only for Inoue to suffer a rib injury and postpone the event.
Inoue — No. 8 at 118 by The Ring — is the younger brother of Naoya Inoue (26-0, 23 KOs), a four-division champ and current undisputed 122-pound king who is The Ring’s No. 2-ranked pound-for-pound fighter. Ancajas is not currently ranked by The Ring but previously held the IBF 115-pound title. The 32-year-old southpaw made nine successful defenses before he suffered back-to-back defeats to Fernando ‘Puma’ Martinez (16-0, 9 KOs) in 2022.
Kosei Tanaka (left) and Christian Bacasegua Rangel. (Photo by Naoki Fukuda)
The third title fight of the show pits Nagoya’s Kosei Tanaka and Mexicali’s Christian Bacasegua Rangel in a 12-round bout for the vacant WBO 115-pound belt.
Tanaka (19-1, 11 KOs) — rated No. 4 at 115 by The Ring — was 114¾ pounds in his second attempt to win a fourth divisional title. He previously held the WBO title at 105, 108 and 112 pounds. Bacasegua (22-4-2, 9 KOs) was also 114¾ pounds in his first major title bid as well as his debut in Japan, or anywhere else outside of Mexico.
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