{"id":695493,"date":"2026-05-26T19:25:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T19:25:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/695493\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T19:25:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T19:25:19","slug":"junto-nakatanis-honest-verdict-on-naoya-inoues-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/695493\/","title":{"rendered":"Junto Nakatani&#8217;s honest verdict on Naoya Inoue&#8217;s power"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Head coach Rudy Hernandez has recalled the exact moment that Junto Nakatani revealed the level of power he experienced from <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/boxer\/naoya-inoue\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Naoya Inoue<\/a>\u2019s punches.<\/p>\n<p>The two Japanese stars squared off in an eagerly-awaited showdown earlier this month, which took place at a sold-out Tokyo Dome in front of roughly 55,000 fans.<\/p>\n<p>As a sizable favourite, many expected Inoue to retain his undisputed super-bantamweight crown, yet his sheer dominance in the early rounds nonetheless came as a surprise to most.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/cj0pjp25y69o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\u2018The Monster\u2019 claimed a clear unanimous decision victory<\/a>, but was forced to overcome a Nakatani onslaught between rounds seven and 10.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, \u2018Big Bang\u2019 suddenly sprang to life after taking a far more measured approach in the previous rounds, appearing to no longer respect the power of his opponent.<\/p>\n<p>According to his trainer, Hernandez, this was a pivotal moment which, if only it had arrived sooner, may have been enough to pinch a razor-thin victory on points.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, the experienced coach has told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boxingscene.com\/articles\/rudy-hernandez-ill-quit-if-junto-nakatani-loses-a-rematch-to-naoya-inoue\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">BoxingScene<\/a> what Nakatani thought of Inoue\u2019s power, whilst believing that a potential rematch with Inoue would surely go their way, so confident in Nakatani\u2019s ability that he has promised to retire if he is proven wrong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we don\u2019t beat [Inoue] in the rematch, I will never train fighters again. I will retire. I will quit, because I really believe in the rematch we are going to kick Inoue\u2019s butt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe moment Junto told me that [Inoue] doesn\u2019t hit that hard, that was a game-changer. I wish he had told me that in the second or third round.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hernandez adds that, irrespective of their prior head collision, an Inoue uppercut in round 11 was what ultimately <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnewsonline.net\/news\/nakatani-on-naoya-inoue-ability\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">broke Nakatani\u2019s orbital bone<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>From there, the three-weight world champion was fighting an uphill battle to even complete the full 12 rounds, let alone pull off a sizable upset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Head coach Rudy Hernandez has recalled the exact moment that Junto Nakatani revealed the level of power he&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-695493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}