In the span of a single week, Japanese WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani and Mexican former super welterweight world champion Jaime Munguia have entered into multi-fight co-promotional deals through their promotions, Teiken Promotions and Zanfer Promotions, respectively. For Munguia, this move further confirms his split from Golden Boy Promotions, with whom he has been since 2018.
Junto Nakatani (28-0, 21 KOs) comes fresh off a win last weekend, which saw him successfully defend his WBC bantamweight (118 lbs) title against Filipino contender Vincent Astrolabio (19-5, 14 KOs). With his co-promotional agreement with Top Rank unveiled yesterday through an official press release, Nakatani has opened himself up to new opportunities for bigger fights, given Top Rank’s recent deal with Riyadh Season―which will see Top Rank’s next couple of shows sponsored by the Saudi-based organization.
The agreement between Nakatani’s promotion, Teiken Promotions, and Top Rank will see Top Rank co-promote the Japanese fighter, likely anywhere outside of his home country of Japan. Nakatani’s deal with Top Rank appears to be a continuation of the partnership that the US-based promotion and Teiken Promotions struck last year, which saw undisputed super bantamweight (122 lbs) champion Naoya Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs) become one of the first Teiken fighters to be co-promoted by Top Rank.
According to ESPN, Mexican super middleweight (168 lbs) contender Jaime Munguia (43-1, 34 KOs) has also struck a co-promotional deal with Top Rank through his promoter, Zanfer Promotions. Previously, Munguia had been involved in a co-promotional deal with Golden Boy Promotions following an agreement struck in 2018 that also involved DAZN. Under the Golden Boy banner, Munguia fought a total of sixteen (16) fights.
Munguia has moved up twice since signing with Golden Boy, though he has not managed to recapture the same glory of becoming a world champion thus far. Munguia’s last fight saw him lose to Canelo Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs) by unanimous decision (UD) on May 4th this year.
