Junto Nakatani "Shocked" At Naoya Inoue Knockdown, Wants Best Version Now

The boxing world was in shock when Naoya Inoue hit the canvas for the second time in his career against Ramon Cardenas. It looks like a top pound-for-pound boxer took notice too.

Three-division world champion Junto Nakatani told Ring Magazine that he and Rudy Hernandez, his head trainer, agreed that they need to fight Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs) before "The Monster" starts to physically decline.

“I 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."
Henandez told The Ring

The comments come as Inoue has fights looming against Murodjon Akhmadaliev and potentially WBA featherweight champion Nick Ball. Along with those two big fights, Inoue is targeting a big fight with Nakatani (30-0, 23 KOs) in May 2026 at the Tokyo Dome.

A bout between Inoue and Nakatani is shaping up to be the biggest fight in Japanese boxing history. Inoue is No. 2 on the Ring Magazine pound-for-pound rankings, while Nakatani sits at No. 7. And for the past five years, both boxers have dominated the lower weight classes, jumping up divisions and claiming belts.

Nakatani gave his thoughts on Inoue's most recent fight against Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs), which saw the undisputed super-bantamweight champion get floored by an overhand right and hit the canvas.

“It was a big surprise when he got knocked down. It was shocking."
Nakatani told Ring Magazine

The 27-year-old currently holds the WBC bantamweight title, and has landed a similar overhand counter left that Cardenas and Luis Nery knocked down Inoue with. Most notably, he scored a knockout of the year against Andrew Moloney on May 20th, 2023.

Nakatani is currently preparing to face IBF bantamweight champion Ryosuke Nishida (10-0, 2 KOs) in a unfication bout on June 8th at Ariake Colosseum in Japan. He said this could be his last fight at 118 lbs, adding that he wants to fight twice at super-bantamweight before the Inoue fight happens.

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