{"id":368895,"date":"2025-12-24T13:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T13:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/368895\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T13:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T13:19:08","slug":"naoya-inoue-has-a-plan-for-japanese-rival-junto-nakatani-who-has-designs-on-his-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/368895\/","title":{"rendered":"Naoya Inoue has \u2018a plan\u2019 for Japanese rival Junto Nakatani, who has designs on his title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Floyd Mayweather Jnr v Manny Pacquiao bout happened probably five years too late. Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua still have not fought. But Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani are ready to square off soon in what would be the biggest fight in Japanese boxing history.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">No posturing, but just two top pound-for-pound boxers in their prime seemingly willing to give fans what they want.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Here is the catch: they each have one more fight and need to avoid a surprise before their expected showdown.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Inoue (31-0, 27 KOs) is the undisputed super bantamweight (55 kilograms, or 122 pounds) champion and the headliner on Saturday in Saudi Arabia. He faces Mexico\u2019s Alan David Picasso.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Nakatani (31-0, 24 KOs), moving up in weight to make his debut in the division, will face Sebastian Hernandez Reyes \u2013 also Mexican \u2013 on the same card, a showcase of Japanese fighters.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Junto Nakatani\u2019s goal for 2026 was \u201cto be champion at super bantamweight\u201d. Photo: AP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/d3f99179-5e13-4a6c-b6be-810bb33174e6_f60200c9.jpg\" title=\"Junto Nakatani\u2019s goal for 2026 was \u201cto be champion at super bantamweight\u201d. Photo: AP\"\/>Junto Nakatani\u2019s goal for 2026 was \u201cto be champion at super bantamweight\u201d. Photo: AP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThis is very important for Japanese boxing,\u201d Inoue said through a translator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Floyd Mayweather Jnr v Manny Pacquiao bout happened probably five years too late. Tyson Fury and Anthony&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[199848,64,63,802,15751,794,10340,71846,13414,2184,199850,95634,13409,16748,14640,199849,5149,85,11804],"class_list":["post-368895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-alan-david-picasso","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-dazn","tag-espn","tag-hong-kong","tag-japanese-boxing","tag-junto-nakatani","tag-mexico","tag-mohammed-abdo-arena","tag-murodjon-akhmadaliev","tag-naoya-inoue","tag-riyadh","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-sebastian-hernandez-reyes","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-sports","tag-tokyo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}