Newly crowned World Boxing Council bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani of M.T Boxing Gym and his manager and younger brother Ryuto Nakatani left for Los Angeles on May 23 for a 40-day training camp there in preparation for his planned title defense against top-ranked Vincent Astrolabio of the Philippines in July in Tokyo.

  While the gym has not yet made an official announcement of the fight, the WBC said in its official website on May 15 that the 26-year-old Nakatani will make his first defense of the title he captured with a sixth-round technical knockout over Alexandro Santiago of Mexico in this past February at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena.

  Nakatani, a three-weight world champion who was recently ranked 10^th in the pound-for-pound rankings by the prestigious Ring Magazine, told reporters at Haneda Airport in Tokyo that he will have the full-fledged training camp by sitting at the feet of U.S. trainer Rudy Hernandez and Japanese trainer Daisuke Okabe who lives there, just like before. He is expected to return to Japan on July 3.

  The left-handed Nakatani is undefeated in his 27 bouts, 20 by KO, while the 27-year-old Astrolabio has a record of 19 wins, including 14 KOs, against four losses. Astrolabio dropped a majority decision to Jason Moloney of Australia for the then vacant World Boxing Organization bantamweight title a year ago.