Junto Nakatani has officially vacated his WBC and IBF bantamweight titles as he pursues a megafight with Japanese rival Naoya Inoue.
The two stars will appear in separate bouts on the same card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on December 27 on a stacked bill titled The Ring V: Night of the Samurai.
Nakatani, moving up to junior featherweight where Inoue reigns supreme, will face Mexican Sebastian Hernandez, while Inoue meets David Picasso.
Further bouts see Kenshiro Teraji up against Willibaldo Garcia, featherweight Reito Tsutsumi, 26-2 (5 KOs), against Leonardo Quintana, 11-1 (5 KOs), Taiga Imanaga, 9-0 (5 KOs), versus Armando Martinez, 16-0 (15 KOs), at lightweight and gifted junior lightweight Hayato Tsutsumi, 8-0 (5 KOs), against Liverpool veteran Jazza Dickens, who is 36-5 (15 KOs).
Inoue is 31-0 (27 KOs) and fresh off a commanding victory over Murodjon Akhmadaliev last weekend in Nagoya. His challenger, Picasso, is 32-0-1 (17 KOs), and he’s been in the frame for Inoue for more than a year.
Teraji, 25-2 (16 KOs), lost his flyweight belt to Ricardo Sandoval in July, while Mexican veteran Garcia is 23-6-2 (13 KOs), and Teraji will fight for the vacant IBF championship at junior bantamweight, after Sandoval defeated rival Rene Calixto Bibiano in May in their rematch.
