NAKATANI STOPS ASTROLABIO IN FIRST ROUND WITH WICKED BODY SHOT
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 20 Jul 2024
Japanese three-division world champion Junto Nakatani delivered a devastating body shot to the midsection of Filipino challenger Vincent Astrolabio who ran out of air as he crumpled to the canvas and succumbed to a first round knockout loss to the lanky Japanese who easily retained his WBC bantamweight belt at the Ryogoku Kokugikan National Sumo Arena Saturday night.
Time of stoppage was at 2:37 of the first round.
"I expected a long fight but I'm sorry to the fans because the fight ended too early," Nakatani told the interviewer after the fight.
"I promise to have a good fight next time around," added Nakatani who now aims to have a unification fight against fellow Japanese bantamweight champion Takuma Inoue who holds the WBA version of the title.
The action started slow as the bell rang opening the fight. Nakatani, who has a three-inch reach advantage, clearly wants to fight from the outside as Astrolabio tries to find his way to penetrate inside. The southpaw Nakatani connected with a couple of lefts upstairs with Astrolabio throws his on shots to the body as the action begins to heat up. Generally the round was timid going into the last 30 seconds of the fight. But suddenly, a long left straight to the body by Nakatani, who packed a lot of power from both hands, connected at Astrolabio's midsection just above the belt, that sent the Filipino to the canvas writhing in pain. Astrolabio tried to get up but Referee Thomas Taylor reached the count of 10 for another knockout victory by Nakatani.
Nakatani improves his record to 28-0 with 21 stoppages as Astrolabio drops to 19-5-0, 14KOs.
Junto Nakatani (L) unleashes the body shot that stops Vincent Astrolabio in the first round of their WBC world bantamweight title fight Saturday night in Tokyo, Japan.
Referee Thomas Taylor embraces the defeated Astrolabio who was immobilized by Nakatani's powerful body shot in the first round of the WBC world bantamweight title fight Saturday night in Tokyo, Japan.
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