Kickboxing ace turned boxing star Tenshin Nasukawa looks to punch his ticket to another title shot at the expense of the great Juan Francisco Estrada, who has his sights set on conquering his third weight class.
Nasukawa (7-1, 2 KO) lost his undefeated pro record to Takuma Inoue in a bid for WBC gold last December, while Estrada (45-4, 28 KO) bounced back from his loss to “Bam” Rodriguez by overpowering Karim Arce the previous June.
Can Nasukawa recapture his momentum, or does “El Gallo” have another
legendary performance left in the tank?
Who will win Tenshin vs Estrada?
Even in defeat, Nasukawa showed off some of what makes him special against Inoue: the speed, the lateral movement, the offbeat combination punching.
Unfortunately, the more conventional a boxing match it became, the more his lingering bad habits shone through. Nasukawa suffers from a rough combination of limited power, poor upper-body movement, and a tendency to drop his hands during and after his punches, all of which gave Inoue a significant edge whenever they exchanged.
Estrada, long in the tooth though he may be, showed against Arce that he still has the fearsome offensive prowess to overpower Nasukawa in similar fashion. He’s levels above Nasukawa on the inside, has the timing to punish his defensive lapses as he steps into range, and is ostensibly too seasoned to be blinded by Nasukawa’s razzle-dazzle at a distance.
Nasukawa’s speed is a real concern, especially considering the age difference, but it took Inoue neither a significant amount of time nor a particularly complex approach to neutralize the majority of Nasukawa’s movement. Plus, Estrada held his own for long stretches against another esoteric mover in Rodriguez, who possesses significantly stronger fundamentals than Nasukawa. There’s every reason to believe that Estrada, experienced as he is, can make similar adjustments to Inoue and force Nasukawa into the sort of short- to mid-range affair that takes the Japanese wunderkind’s strengths off the table.
Four months just isn’t enough time for Nasukawa to have fixed what ails him. He’ll shine for a few rounds, but once Estrada gets his offense going and Nasukawa starts to slow, the Mexican great’s combination punching and body attack will carry the day.
Prediction: Estrada by unanimous decision
