This week, a friend of mine asked for help getting a couple of tickets for the 122-pound showdown between Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani, which is set to take place in the 55,000 seat Tokyo Dome. When I asked around, the response I got was along the lines of, No shot. Inoue-Nakatani is the hottest ticket in Japan, with every seat expected to be filled for the biggest fight in Japanese boxing history.
And why not? Inoue is a mega star in Japan. He’s the undisputed 122-pound champion who went 4–0 in title defenses last year. Nakatani is an undefeated former 118-pound titleholder who has blasted out 75% of the opponents that he has faced. They are both top-10, pound-for-pound stars in the middle of the prime years of their careers. It doesn’t get much better than that.
