On Sunday in Japan we saw two very close friends score their latest wins, as one man claimed his first world title and one further enhanced his place in the pound-for-pound lists. Those wereAnthony Olascuaga (7-1, 5), who claimed the WBO Flyweight title by stopping Japan’s Riku Kano (22-5-2, 11) [加納陸], and WBC Bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani (28-0, 21) [中谷 潤人] make his first defense, as he stopped dangerous Filipino Vincent Astrolabio (19-5, 14) inside a round.
Today the two men, who have known each other for years and both trained under Rudy Hernandez, held a joint press conference to talk about the action on Sunday and their future plans, along with Hernandez and M.T Boxing Gym Chairman Takeshi Murano, who is essentially Nakatani's promoter.
To begin the press conference both men were asked how they spent the night after their win. Nakatani confessed that "I couldn't sleep at all. I've been awake the whole time," while Olascuaga made his own confession, stating "I ate a lot." Obviously enjoying food now that he’s gone through a weight cut and had his fight.
Despite the impressive result Nakatani wasn’t fully happy with his performance, explaining "In the first round, I landed a good punch and knocked my opponent out. There were some things I thought about and things I wanted to improve on, but I will work on them and overcome them." Murano on the other hand saw things a little differently and seemed happy at the outcome saying "When I saw his bandage checks and pad-hitting, I knew he was an opponent we had to be wary of. I felt he would put up some physical pressure, but I was able to hit him with an upper hand and finally take him down with a body blow, so I think it was a complete victory in terms of content."
Interestingly, maybe because he was too busy enjoying food, Olascuaga revealed he hadn’t gone back and watched footage of his own win yet. But did add “I feel like I accomplished my mission,"
Hernandez, who views the two as sons having trained both since they were kids, stated what many thought, saying "They did a great job." Simple, but incredibly accurate and summed things up pretty accurately.
When asked about being on the pound-for-pound lists, Nakatani answered by saying "It's important to get results in each fight. And within that, it's also important to have unification fights." Making it clear that future results are key, unifications are key, and not relying on what he’s already done.
Given that former unified Light Flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji (23-1, 14) [寺地 拳四朗] is heading to Flyweight, Olascuaga was asked about a potential rematch with the man who beat him. He explained "Of course, I want to do it if there is a possibility. I want to fight a title holder, so if Terachi has the belt at that time, I want to do it." He then added "Kenshiro is my friend, but once we step into the ring, that doesn't matter."
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