Earlier today Amazon Prime, in association with Teiken, announced one of the biggest festivals of boxing, with what is essentially a 2-day event, spread over a holiday weekend in October, with 7 world title fights and a regional title fight, giving us what is truly a spectacular weekend of fights.
The event, held over Sunday October 13th and Monday October 14th, which will coincide with the national holiday for Supōtsu no hi, essentially Sports Day, which falls on the second Monday in October..
Day one of the event is, on paper, the stronger of the two shows. It is set to be headlined by the much rumoured WBA Bantamweight title fight between
Takuma Inoue (20-1, 5) [井上拓真] and mandatory challenger Seiya Tsutsumi (11-0-2, 8) [堤聖也], in what is probably the pick of the 8 announced title bouts. In the chief support role for this show is another great match up, and one that has been long rumoured, with former unified Light Flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji (23-1, 14) [寺地 拳四朗] facing Cristofer Rosales (37-6, 22) for the vacant WBC Flyweight title, which was once held by Rosales.With two great bouts at the top of the card the other two title bouts are a little underwhelming in comparison, but are certainly still very solid bouts that could have headlined their own shows. One will see WBA Flyweight champion Seigo Yuri Akui (20-2-1, 11) [阿久井政悟] make his second defense as he takes on Thananchai Charunphak (25-1, 15), fresh off his upset win against Kento Hatanaka (15-1, 10) [畑中建人] in Nagoya. The other will feature Shokichi Iwata (13-1, 10) facing off against Jairo Noriega (14-0, 3), from Spain, for the vacant WBO Light Flyweight title, in a bout that looks really good on paper, but a step down from the two main bouts.On the Monday, which as mentioned is a national Holiday in Japan, we’ll get a show headlined by 3-weight world champion Junto Nakatani (28-0, 21) [中谷 潤人] defending his WBC Bantamweight title against Tasana Salapat (76-1, 53), aka Petch CP Freshmart or Petch Sor Chitpattana. This is underwhelming given the other show, but a quick turn around for Nakatani who fought in July. Nakatani gets to continue his double act with his close friend Anthony Olascuaga (7-1, 5) who will be defending the WBO Flyweight title against Jonathan Gonzalez (28-3-1-1, 14), in a really good first defense. Interestingly, Gonzalez vacated the WBO Light Flyweight title that Iwata will be fighting for having previously lost a controversial bout to Gonzalez in 2022.Iwata isn’t the only former foe of Gonzalez’s fighting over these two shows however, as WBO Super Flyweight champion Kosei Tanaka (20-1, 11) [田中恒成] will be making his first defense of the title he won earlier this year, as he faces unbeaten South African Phumelele Cafu (10-0-3, 8), in a notable step up for Case. The only non-world title bout to be announced for these shows so far, is a WBO Asia Pacific Bantamweight title bout, as Tenshin Nasukawa (4-0, 2) [那須川天心] takes on Filipino Gerwin Asilo (9-0, 4), in what is Tenshin’s first title bout.Both shows are to take place at the Ariake Arena and both will be shown live on Amazon Prime in Japan and ESPN + in the US. At the time of writing no UK broadcaster has been confirmed
