JAPAN – Junto Nakatani proved too much and too classy for Vincent Astrolabio, scoring a quick first round knockout to retain his WBC bantamweight crown Saturday night at the Kokugikan National Arena in Tokyo.
The jampacked 8,000 crowd at the venue has hardly warmed up their seats when the reigning champion connected on a perfect body shot (left straight) to Astrolabio's solar plexus which sent his Filipino challenger reeling to the canvas.
The General Santos City native tried to get up as he tried to ignore the pain, but sank down on his knees again that forced referee Thomas Taylor to stop the fight.
The end came at the 2:32 mark of the opening round.
Defending his 118-lbs title for the first time, Nakatani, 26, is now 28-0, with 21 knockouts as the future looks definitely very bright for the three-time world division champion and the #10-ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Astrolabio meanwhile, fell short anew of his bid to win a world title, a year after losing by majority decision against Jason Moloney in their WBO bantamweight title fight in Stockton, California.
The Filipino saw his record go down at 19-5, with 14 KOs.
Following the sensational win, Nakatani made known his intention of unifying all title belts at bantamweight.
"I’m willing to fight another bantam champion in a unification bout," said the undefeated Japanese champion.
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