Junto Nakatani Forged the 2023 TSS Knockout of the Year

Junto Nakatani fought Andrew Moloney on May 20, 2023 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas in the chief supporting bout to Devin Haney’s lightweight title defense against Vasyl Lomachenko. At stake was the vacant WBO junior bantamweight title.

Nakatani, who was undefeated (24-0, 17 KOs), had previously held a world title at flyweight. He was favored over Moloney (25-2, 1 NC) whose only blemishes had come in title fights with three-time rival Joshua Franco. The previous week, Moloney’s twin brother Jason had won the WBO bantamweight title with a hard-earned decision over Vincent Astrolabio.

One could sense early on that Andrew Moloney was in over his head. Nakatani, tall for the weight at five-foot-seven-and-a-half, put Moloney on the deck in round two and once again in round 11 when it was plain that only a knockout would enable Moloney to pull the fight out of the fire.

A knockout would come, but the Aussie would be the recipient of it. With only 18 seconds to go in the final round, Nakatani hit Moloney with a short left hook that landed right on the button. Moloney was unconscious before he hit the canvas and was removed to a hospital for observation.

Some one-punch knockouts you can actually hear. The brutal punch that sent Moloney to dreamland produced a sound like a rifle shot. It was frightening scene. Thankfully, Moloney recovered with no visible signs of permanent damage. He returned to the ring this month in Australia and, in a fight designed as a confidence-restorer, won a wide 10-round decision over his unsung Filipino opponent.

As for Nakatani, he successfully defended his belt in September with a lopsided decision over Mexico’s Argi Cortes and in February will attempt to win a world title in a third weight division when he challenges Mexico’s Alexandro Santiago who will be making the first defense of the WBC bantamweight belt that he won with an upset of veteran Nonito Donaire. Nakatani vs. Santiago will be staged at the Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo.

It’s common for a boxer’s knockout ratio to decline as he moves up in weight, but we suspect that Nakatani, still growing into his body at age 25, will be even more formidable at 118. We would not want to be in Santiago’s shoes.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank via Getty images

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