Photos by Wendell Alinea.
Undefeated three-division world champion and current WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani of Japan and his challenger Vincent Astrolabio of the Philippines met face to face during Thursday's press conference at the Tokyo Dome Hotel in Tokyo, Japan ahead of their world championship bout on Saturday at Ryoguko Kokugikan Arena, also in Tokyo.
Nakatani (27-0-0, 20KOs) will defend his bantamweight belt for the first time which he won against Alexandro Santiago of Mexico last Feb. 24 via 6th round TKO. Nakatani held the WBO flyweight belt from December 2020 to April, 2022 and the WBO super flyweight belt from May 2023 to April 2024.
The Philippines' Vincent Astrolabio (L) and Japan's Junto Nakatani (R) pose with WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman (C) during Thursday's press conference at the Tokyo Dome Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.
Astrolabio (19-4-0, 14KOs) fought in the bantamweight division since 2019 and had significant wins against Guillermo
Rigondeaux and Nikolai Potapov before losing to WBO world champion Jason Moloney of Australia in his failed first world championship bid.
Astrolabio hopes to finally capture a world crown in his second attempt against Nakatani.
Team Astrolabio pose after Thursday's press conference in Japan.
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