Pound for pound moves were made as Junto Nakatani, Takuma Inoue, and Kosei Tanaka scored significant victories in Tokyo, Japan, on Saturday.
Overseen by the Japan Boxing Commission and promoter Akihiko Honda of Teiken Promotions, Nakatani was impressive as he claimed the WBC bantamweight title. The card was televised on ESPN in the United States thanks to the ongoing links with Top Rank.
Junto Nakatani wins
Following his WBO title wins at flyweight and super-flyweight, Nakatani successfully moved up in weight to stop Alexandro Santiago. Nakatani got the job done in the fifth to move to 27-0.
The Land of the Rising Sun consensus is that Nakatani took the spotlight from the other two title triumphs. His star power increased significantly.
In the headliner, Takuma Inoue, brother of P4P king Naoya Inoue, retained the WBA bantamweight title by defeating former world champion Jerwin Ancajas.
Inoue had the edge in power despite Ancajas enjoying his moments. In the end, a body shot saw off the challenger in the ninth.
The third world title fight saw Kosei Tanaka become a four-weight WBO champion by beating Christian Bacasegua. The unanimous decision handed Tanaka a twentieth career victory.
Scores from Pat Russell of 117-110, Surat Soikrachang of 119-108, and Don Trella of 116-111 sealed the deal for the vacant strap.
Despite none of the trio breaking the WBN P4P Top 10, Nakatani is now twelfth, Tanaka is thirteenth, and Inoue breaks onto the list at 30.
Early action saw Jonas Sultan shocked by four-fight Riku Masuda due to an eighth-round knockout. Masuda improved to 4-1.
Meanwhile, Kensho Oyamada lost via fourth-round stoppage to Ren Kobayashi as both made their debuts.
WBN Pound for Pound Top 20 – February 2024
1 Naoya INOUE
2 Terence CRAWFORD
3 Oleksandr USYK
4 CANELO Alvarez
5 Devin HANEY
6 Dmitry BIVOL
7 Vasiliy LOMACHENKO
8 Shakur STEVENSON
9 Gervonta DAVIS
10 Artur BETERBIEV
11 Kazuto IOKA
12 Junto NAKATANI
13 Kosei TANAKA
14 Juan ESTRADA
15 Jesse Rodriguez
16 Emauel NAVARRETE
17 Jermell CHARLO
18 Teofimo LOPEZ
19 Kenshiro TERAJI
20 David BENAVIDEZ
30 Takuma Inoue
