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

Above super flyweight is bantam. Another step up is the super bantamweight division, where Naoya Inoue (30) is currently ranked. The day when these two monsters cross paths may be closer than expected. In an interview with this magazine, the “original monster” said, “The first round is a round where I use my sensors to measure the distance from which my opponent’s punches will hit me and the distance from which my punches will hit him. Inoue’s theory is that whoever wins the “battle of distance” wins the fight. How does Nakatani see Inoue’s view?

In the first round, when Inoue measures the distance from his opponent, I look for a position where I can get the center of the opponent’s body. I try to find a position where I can put a straight left straight into the center of the opponent’s body, the vital point, in a straight and balanced manner. My ideal opponent is former minimum and light flyweight champion Ricardo Lopez (56), who retired as a champion with 51 wins and 37 KOs. I believe that his “boxing that doesn’t let the opponent do what he wants” is the ultimate.

There were two major comments made by boxers who actually fought Naoya Inoue after the fight. One was, “When I tried to punch back, Inoue was no longer there. The second was, “I heard he had great power, but what surprised me was how fast his hand speed was. Nakatani’s view was as follows.”

When he punches, he can backstep or sidestep to get out of his opponent’s range to “strike without letting him strike. Inoue is very skilled at this. It is a trick that requires good body balance and physical strength. The direction of escape is always different, so I think that the opponent is under the illusion that Inoue has disappeared. Not being able to see the opponent is quite terrifying.

As for the “hand speed” – I think Inoue is swinging his body and punching at the same time. Normally, a boxer looks at his opponent’s body, not at his face or hands, during a match. They look at the movements of the body and muscles to predict which punch will come next and where it will come from. In Inoue’s case, however, when his body moves, the punch has already been delivered. That is why you feel he is fast.

Last year, Inoue won the title of “the best pound-for-pound fighter” for the first time in Japanese boxing history. Seeing Nakatani’s unstinting analysis of the super techniques of the “original monster,” I couldn’t help but wish for a monster summit showdown in his prime.

One year or two years from now, and beyond that showdown, the dream of a six-weight class domination lies ahead.