June 19: Brian Norman Jr.-Jin Sasaki WBO Welterweight World Title Showdown Headlines Tokyo Bill LIVE on ESPN+
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 12 Jun 2025
Coverage from Ota City General Gymnasium begins at 4 a.m. ET/1 a.m. PT
TOKYO (June 11, 2025) — Boxing’s youngest male world champion is plotting another clinical finish in hostile territory.
Brian “The Assassin” Norman Jr. will defend his WBO welterweight world title against Japanese contender Jin Sasaki on Thursday, June 19, at Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.
In the co-feature, undefeated Japanese prodigy Sora Tanaka (3-0, 3 KOs) steps up to 12 rounds in just his fourth pro fight against veteran Takeru Kobata (14-7-1, 6 KOs) for the vacant OPBF welterweight title.
Norman-Sasaki, Tanaka-Kobata, and undercard bouts will stream live and exclusively on ESPN+ in the U.S. beginning at 4 a.m. ET/1 a.m. PT, with the main event starting at approximately 7:15 a.m. ET/4:15 a.m. PT.
Norman (27-0, 21 KOs) is a 24-year-old Atlanta native who began honing his craft as a paid professional at 17, racking up more than a dozen early wins in Mexico. He kept building with a string of stateside victories, including five stoppages in his home state, before signing with Top Rank in early 2023. A year later, he faced Giovani Santillan for the vacant interim title and silenced the San Diego faithful with a statement-making 10th-round knockout. Three months later, he was elevated to full champion and returned in March to dispatch Puerto Rican puncher Derrieck Cuevas in three rounds.
Sasaki (19-1-1, 17 KOs) is undefeated as a welterweight, having picked up nine wins and seven knockouts since the only defeat on his resume. He claimed the WBO Asia Pacific title in January 2023 with a one-round destruction of Ryota Toyoshima. He defended it five times, including wins via the fast route over Joe Noynay and Qamil Balla in 2024. In January, he went 12 rounds for the first time, decisioning Shoki Sakai on the Naoya Inoue-Ye Joon Kim undercard.
In additional undercard action:
In the first fight on the ESPN+ stream, Filipino southpaw Cristian Araneta (25-2, 20 KOs) and Thailand’s Thanongsak Simsri (38-1, 34 KOs) collide for the vacant IBF junior flyweight world title. Araneta enters the bout riding a six-fight win streak, while Simsri looks to build on 14 straight victories since his lone defeat in 2022.
Local rivals Yuki Onu (8-0-2, 5 KOs) and former world title challenger Reiya Abe (26-4-2, 10 KOs) will vie for the vacant Japanese featherweight title. Both look to rebound from draws, with Onu going eight rounds with Kyohei Tonomoto last November and Abe battling Satoshi Shimizu over 10 rounds in March.
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