Jyunjin Nakatani, “Heir to the Monster,” talks about his next fight and Naoya Inoue’s super techniques

Nakatani says that “no punches worked ” in this title match. He suffered a cut above his left eyebrow, but “it was no problem. On the contrary, I was so excited because I saw the blood that I KO’d (Moloney),” he laughed.

Speaking of punches that worked on me, it goes back to when I was in junior high school. I was in the 30kg range and my opponent was in the 50kg range, so there was quite a weight difference between us. I thought, “No way, I’m going to fall down. That was the last time.”

“I didn’t have any punches that worked, but I was able to avoid the butting. Rudy had advised me, ‘Moloney is going to head-tackle you, so guard yourself by putting the arm that is not punching on your forehead,’ and I forgot to do that. In the fifth to seventh rounds, when Moroni came forward, my strategy of timing my punches to his movements to reduce his stamina, both mentally and physically, worked well, but I thought I could have reduced his stamina more. That’s another thing I regret.”

In his second fight at super flyweight, he dominated the champion. Nakatani thinks he has “one or two more fights” in this weight class. His next target will be Kazusho Ioka, 34, who avoided a nominated bout with Nakatani by vacating his WBO belt and challenging for the WBA belt. Or is it WBC super flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada (33), whom Ioka is targeting?

I don’t care which one it is. But a fight with Ioka might be exciting, but I don’t think it will happen. If anything, I would rather fight Estrada. Either way, I want to unify the belts and take the next step. I don’t intend to stay in this weight class for too long.”