After suffering a first career defeat last time out, Tenshin Nasukawa seeks to bounce back in style, accepting a showdown with a two-weight world champion.
One of Japan’s most adored celebrities, Tenshin Nasukawa was dealt an unfamiliar feeling of failure last time out, but the 27-year-old hopes to move on from defeat and secure a career-best win.
Nasukawa (7-1, 2 KOs) maintained an undefeated record in his respective professional kickboxing and mixed martial arts careers, which combine for a total 46 fights.
However, the Matsudo-born fan-favourite has not been able to replicate that feat in the world of boxing.
‘Prodigy’ jumped into in the squared circle at the deep end, with his first five opponents possessing a combined record of 63-10-3 and each being trumped with relative ease.
Nasukawa then began 2025 by overcoming former WBO bantamweight world champion Jason Moloney, in just his sixth professional fight, and then trumping Victor Santillan to rise further up the world rankings.
Bantamweight king Junto Nakatani then opted to move up to super-bantamweight and vacate his WBC and IBF 118lb titles, opening the door for Nasukawa to capture world honours within just eight fights.
Although, in November, Nasukawa was outboxed by Takuma Inoue, who simultaneously captured the vacant WBC bantamweight world title and handed Nasukawa a rare defeat in combat sport.
Rather than dwell on his shortcomings, the game contender is planning to challenge for world honours again during 2026 and he has now accepted a WBC eliminator, where victory could tee up a rematch with Inoue.
Yet, there is no guarantee that Nasukawa will come through that contest unscathed, with former flyweight and super-flyweight ruler Juan Francisco Estrada set to be in the opposing corner, as per ESPN’s Fernando Barbosa.
Estrada has fought just once since 2022, that being a stoppage defeat to the supreme Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez in June 2024, where he lost his WBC and The Ring super-flyweight titles.
Nasukawa is expected to take on the Mexican atop a Tokyo bill on Friday, April 10.
Muy interesante…Gallo Estrada Vs. Tenshin Nasukawa – WBC 118 eliminator – April 10th – Tokyo.@ESPNKnockOut
— @BarbosaBox (@BarbosaBox) January 21, 2026
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