Sumo Arena
Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan
Sat. Feb 24 Main Card: 3:00am cst
ESPN+(USA),
TAKUMA INOUE VS JERWIN ANCAJAS
Something special is in store this Saturday for the early risers of the western hemisphere. At 3:00am cst Japan kicks off one hell of a main card featuring no less than three world title bouts.
The excitement is sure to pair well with a cup of coffee and will see bantamweight Takuma Inoue(18-2, 4KOs) defending his newly acquired WBA world title for the first time against former IBF super-flyweight champ, Jerwin Ancajas(34-3-2, 23 KOs) who is making his 118 lb debut.
Boxing fans will also get to witness Junto Nakatani(26-0, 19KOs) ,winner of “ESPN’s KO of the Year 2023” after brutalizing Andrew Moloney to win his WBO super-flyweight world title, move up a weight class to take on WBC world bantamweight champion, Alexandro Santiago(28-3-5, 14KOs). Santiago won the vacant strap last year in a unanimous decision against Filipino legend Nonito Donaire.
There will be more excitement yet as super-flyweights Kosei Tanaka(19-1, 11KOs) and Christian “Rocky” Rangel(22-4-2, 9KOs) will be facing one another in an effort to realize their respective dreams of becoming world champion as the vacant WBO belt will be up for grabs.
Each of these 12 round championship fights would be worth waking up for on their own, but when you put them all together, one would be remiss to not set an alarm to witness such a thing live and start Saturday with some action.
