Junto Nakatani vs Sebastian Hernandez Reyes on December 27th

Former World champion Hideyuki Ohashi the owner of the Ohashi Gym (the gym of the brothers Inoue & Yoshiki Takei) and manager of Naoya Inoue, said that Naoya Inoue will fight Junto Nakatani in March 2026.

 

This will be at 122 lbs Junto Nakatani vs Reyes ?

So Nakatani will vacant his IBF, WBC & The Ring belts in Bantamweight ?

 

I agree marinating never works, but I think in this case the bigger issue is that:
1) Nakatani (fully understandingly) wanted a test match at 122 before fighting the P4P king of the division. He fought at 118 in June 2025, and having a fight in May 2026 with one test match in between makes total sense and not exactly marinating TOO much.
2) Inoue vs Nakatani ABSOLUTELY MUST happen in Japan at Tokyo Dome. Doing it in December in Riyadh was not going to be a choice as that is only for fights by guys who can't/won't fight eachother without Turki funding but that is not the case in Inoue vs Nakatani.

Hernandez, while lacking in name value, a more than solid choice of opponent who's got power, toughness, and enough speed to be a solid hurdle for Nakatani prior to Inoue who's a better version of it all. And not to mention, frankly if Nakatani loses to Hernandez in December then he really won't make it worth fighting Inoue either so I have faith that he'll win even if not by an easy landslide.

 

I'm pretty sure that is a typo of May or a mistranslation. December to March is WAAAY too short of a turnaround for literally the greatest fight between two Japanese boxers in history.

 

Maybe but it will coming soon.

In any way it will be the first fight for Junto Nakatani at 122 lbs.

This vacant belts are pretty interesting for the bantamweight division (speciallly for Takuma Inoue, Ryosuke Nishida, Yoshiki Takei, Seiya Tsutsumi, Antonio Vargas, Riku Masuda, Nonito Donaire, Jason Moloney & Tenshin Nasukawa).

 

My guess:
1) After the Murodjon fight, Nakatani gets in the ring and they talk about the December Riyadh card where they both will be competing at.
2) Perhaps Picasso gets in afterwards to have the whole "lets meet at Riyadh"-ish handshake.
3) Likely within the week Nakatani officially vacates the IBF and WBC 118 belts.
4) Later in the month Teiken will make an announcement for the November Amazon Prime boxing card featuring Tenshin vs Takuma as main for vacant WBC belt, followed by Salas vs Masuda for vacant IBF belt.
5) Ngxeke will fight Kenneth Llover for the IBF eliminator around the same time, and the winner will be in line for the winner of Salas-Masuda.
6) Vargas and Donaire will fight somewhere in US this fall. Winner will fight champion at recess Tsutsumi.
7) Takei will probably take a break after the Medina fight and wait for an unification next spring with Tenshin (assuming he can win against Takuma).
8) Nishida is already up in 122 and is negotiating for the IBF eliminator with Ancajas.

 

How good is Sebastian Hernandez Reyes? Potential banana skin?

 

Relentless pressure fighter who is rather methodical. There is nothing special about him, and his power is not quite as good as his record would suggest, but he hits damn hard and is well rounded.
But oh boy! Once he gets his combinations goings its a though night for anyone who faces him.

Reyes is a live underdog, and if Nakatani wins it will be one of his most underrated wins.

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