Make it three in a row for Junto Nakatani.
Before the former three-division titleholder has even competed at junior featherweight, three of the four major sanctioning bodies have now ranked him No. 1 at 122lbs.
It started in September with the WBA; Nakatani supplanted Ramon Cardenas in its rankings. The next two sanctioning bodies to release ratings updates that month were the IBF and WBC, whose bantamweight belts Nakatani still held at the time (they have since been vacated). Then the WBO installed Nakatani at No. 1, pushing down Carl Jammes Martin.
Now the WBC has done the same in its monthly update, which was put out on October 20. Nakatani, 31-0 (24 KOs), sits at No. 1 while the man who previously had that spot, Alan Picasso, is at No. 2.
That won’t cost Picasso anything; he is challenging undisputed champion Naoya Inoue on December 27 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Nakatani will also be on that card against Sebastian Hernandez Reyes (ranked ninth by the WBC); if Nakatani wins, then he’s expected to move forward into a superfight with Inoue in 2026.
After Nakatani and Picasso are Marlon Tapales at No. 3, followed by Luis Nery, Cardenas, Kazuki Nakajima, Subaru Murata, Bryan Mercado, Hernandez Reyes, Yerny Betancourt, Murodjon Akhmadaliev, Toshiki Shimomachi, Jose Israel Ramirez, Fadhili Majiha and Filipus Nghitumbwa.
As for the IBF, it inserted Nakatani at No. 3 while its top two featherweight slots remain vacant. The organization tends to keep at least the No. 1 ranking empty until a fighter wins an elimination bout.
Nakatani is a 27-year-old who previously held world titles at 112, 115 and 118lbs. Earlier in his career, he scored wins over future titleholders Masamichi Yabuki and Seigo Yuri Akui.
In 2020, Nakatani knocked out Giemel Magramo to win a vacant flyweight title, which he then went on to defend twice. Nakatani soon moved up to junior bantamweight and, in 2023, dominated Andrew Moloney and scored a highlight-reel 12th-round knockout to capture another vacant belt. After one defense, Nakatani jumped up to bantamweight in February 2024 and seized the WBC title from Alexandro Santiago via sixth-round TKO.
Nakatani made four successful defenses at 118lbs. He dispatched Vincent Astrolabio in one round in July 2024, Tasana “Petch CP Freshmart” Salapat in six rounds in October 2024, unbeaten contender David Cuellar in three rounds last February, and stopped IBF titleholder Ryosuke Nishida after the sixth round of their unification bout in June.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
