David Benavidez has no shortage of HUGE fights on his radar. In an exclusive interview with BoxingScene, Jose Benavidez Sr. makes it clear that David still wants the biggest names at 175lbs including Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev. Benavidez has previously said those are two fights he wants to make as he pursues more titles and major challenges. But there’s another name that could make things very interesting: Andy Ruiz Jr. Jose discusses the possibility of an all-Mexican showdown between Benavidez and the former heavyweight champion, along with David’s plans across multiple divisions. And with a potential Jai Opetaia showdown also building after the pair came face-to-face following Opetaia’s latest victory, Benavidez has some massive options ahead.
ProboxTV’s championship series is now on the ProBoxTV YouTube channel for $5/month.
Learn More
That was almost too easy.
Junto Nakatani and Ryosuke Nishida made good on an in-ring promise to be each other’s next opponent. The pair of unbeaten Japanese boxers are now set for a mouthwatering bantamweight title unification bout on June 8 from Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo, Japan.
The bout was confirmed by Teiken Promotions during a press conference held Friday morning (local time) in Tokyo. Amazon Prime will carry the event live in Japan, while the show is expected to air on ESPN+ as an early Sunday morning stream.
Also announced were two undercard bouts, both at bantamweight and scheduled for 10 rounds:
• Former kickboxing legend and current rising contender Tenshin Nasukawa, 6-0 (2 KOs), against Victor Santillan, 14-1 (5 KOs)
• Tokyo-based pro rookie Tomoya Tsuboi, 1-0 (1 KO), versus Vietnam’s Van Thao Tran, 18-1 (10 KOs), in a regional title fight
Nakatani, 30-0 (23 KOs) – a three-division titlist – will risk his WBC bantamweight title for the fourth time. Nishida, 10-0 (2 KOs), will attempt his second defense of the IBF title he claimed last May.
Confirmation of the fight comes less than two months after Nakatani’s third-round knockout of unbeaten David Cuellar on February 25 in Tokyo. Nakatani, a unbeaten 27-year-old southpaw from Kanagawa, was joined in the ring by Nishida, at which point they vowed to meet next.
“After my last fight, I asked who's next,” Nakatani told in-ring translator Mizuka Koike at the time. “This time – Nishida, let's fight.”
The request was graciously accepted.
“Yes, let’s go ahead and do this,” Nishida told Nakatani. “I would love that fight.”
A new lineal champion will be crowned as well, as Nakatani and Nishida are universally regarded as the two best bantamweights in the world. Fittingly, their all-Japanese showdown will fill the void left behind when Naoya Inoue, 29-0 (26 KOs), vacated the 118lbs throne in January 2023 to set his sights on the junior featherweight division.
The matchup marks the fourth-ever unification bout between reigning titlists from Japan, and the second this year.
Kenshiro Teraji was involved in two of them, including his 12th-round knockout of Seigo Yuri Akui on March 13 to unify the WBA and WBC flyweight titles. The bout remains the leading candidate for 2025 Fight of the Year.
Teraji previously slaughtered then-unbeaten Hiroto Kyoguchi in their November 2022 lineal, WBA and WBC junior flyweight championship. The fight came more than 10 years after Kazuto Ioka unified the WBC and WBA strawweight belts in a points win over Akira Yaegashi in their June 2012 thriller.
Nakatani-Nishida represents the first all-Japan unification bout to include the IBF title at stake and to not include the WBA belt. The IBF title wasn’t recognized by the Japanese Boxing Commission until April 2013, along with the WBO belt.
Nakatani became a three-division titlist after a sixth-round knockout of Alexandro Santiago last February 25. His win over Cuellar came exactly one year later, already his fourth fight during that stretch. All four wins have come via stoppage, including his annihilations of Vincent Astrolabio and Tasana Salapat (better known to the cool kids as Petch CP Freshmart).
Nishida’s run hasn’t been quite as spectacular, nor was there any great certainty that the 28-year-old Osaka native would land this fight.
A 12-round win over two-time titlist Emmanuel Rodriguez last May gave Japan a clean sweep on the major bantamweight titles. Just one fight has followed – a seventh-round stoppage of unbeaten Anuchai Donsua last December 15 in Nishida’s Osaka hometown.
There was concern that unification plans would be disrupted by a mandatory title defense. Nishida was due to next face Mexico’s Jose Salas, with the fight targeted for late spring if he were unable to move forward with the more desirable showdown against Nakatani.
BoxingScene has learned that Salas agreed to stand down and will instead take a stay-busy fight in Mexico, with the expectations to next face the winner.
A win by Nakatani could create a separate conversation.
Despite title hauls at three weights, this will mark his first unification bout. Nakatani’s ultimate goal is to leave bantamweight as the undisputed champion, though there are already talks of a move all the way up to featherweight. That is where he is expected to face Inoue in a Japanese superfight for the ages sometime in 2026.
For now, Nakatani can take comfort with the first step towards that goal – a fight he and Nishida both spoke into existence just seven weeks ago.
Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.
