Nasukawa vs Robles Prediction: Kickboxing King Continues Boxing Career

One of the greatest kickboxers of all time continues his young boxing career on Tuesday morning, on the undercard of the latest world title fight in boxing. 

Kenshiro vs Canizales might be the main event from Osaka but there will be plenty of interest in former kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa, as he makes just his third appearance as a boxer. We’ve got all the news ahead of the fight in our Nasukawa vs Robles prediction. 

The 25-year-old Japanese star’s boxing career to date might be best remembered for his exhibition loss to Floyd Mayweather but he’s since joined the professional ranks and is looking to continue his progress here.

Nasukawa vs Robles Prediction

Japan is enjoying a massive few weeks of boxing after big nights at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024 and Nasukawa is looking to join the party.

He’s begun his professional career with two relatively straight forward wins and that’s likely to play into our Tenshin Nasukawa vs Luis Robles prediction. 

Robles is looking to defend his reputation and place in the top 15 rankings against a man who is still a novice in the sport and won’t want to be the latest feed for the extremely hungry young lion of the bantamweight division.

Tenshin Nasukawa Preview

Boxing fans may never have heard of Nasukawa until the latter part of 2018 until the press conference to announce his fight with Mayweather. That fight finally took part on New Year’s Eve of that year after a bit of controversy.

The Asian star only lasted two minutes and twenty seconds sadly, having been put down on the canvas three times in the opening 140 seconds by ‘Money’, before the towel was thrown in. That’s unlikely to matter in our Tenshin Nasukawa vs Luis Robles prediction.

However, despite that loss, he had long since put his name in kickboxing history books by becoming a two-weight RISE champion, at bantamweight and featherweight. He would go on to win the ISKA featherweight world championship and RISE World series, before leaving the sport undefeated at 44-0.

In April last year, the 25-year-old made his debut as a professional boxer, having wanted to do so for a number of years but not being able to compete as both a kickboxer and boxer at the same time according to Japanese rules.

He has so far beaten Yuki Yonha, also from Japan, and Mexican Luis Guzman, with both fights in Tokyo. Now he turns his attention to his latest fight and his first bout in Osaka, taking on Robles. 

Nasukawa’s first two wins have come by unanimous decision, fighting over six and eight rounds, and he is once again scheduled for eight rounds on Tuesday. Will his career progression continue?

Luis Robles Preview

For Mexican Robles, this fight will be about trying to stop the up and coming Nasukawa in his tracks, whilst defending his own place in the rankings. The 25-year-old has built his way to 14th in both the WBO and WBA rankings at 118 lbs. 

There is no doubt that he is the huge underdog ahead of this one, despite having a longer career in the sport, and being the visiting fighter to Japan may play into our Nasukawa vs Robles prediction. 

He started his career in March 2016 and all of his experience so far has been fighting in Central America. In fact, only one of his fights hasn’t been in Mexico so the trip to the Far East definitely won’t help him.

He’s had 18 professional fights so far with 15 wins, two losses and a draw. Of the wins, five have come inside the distance with the other 10 coming via the judges, whilst he has never been stoped inside the distance. 

Robles’ most recent fight was his draw, against Alexis Molina and his one previous fight outside of Mexico was in Panama, where he lost to home fighter Edgar Valencia via a split decision. That doesn’t bode well for fighting a Japanese boxer in Osaka. 

Valencia is also a southpaw and that is once again what faces Robles, in the form of Nasukawa this time around.

Nothing really points towards a win for Robles but can he cause a shock and give his opponent the first loss of his career?

Tenshin Nasukawa vs Luis Robles Prediction: Nasukawa To Join Fellow Japanese Boxers

The bantamweight’s ranking lists are full of Japanese talent and it looks like Nasukawa will be the latest to join them. Our Nasukawa vs Robles prediction explains why.

Whilst he hasn’t shown the punch power to be an absolute beast of the division so far, there’s a reason the former kickboxer is such a heavy favorite for this one. We won’t be going against the bookies either.

Unfortunately there isn’t a ton of value in the betting, with Nasukawa available at -1000 on the Moneyline, and this will be the result. Robles can be found at +6000 to get the upset victory.

We’re backing Nasukawa to need all eight rounds to get the victory done, with Tenshin to win by decision at -175. If you think there’s a chance the Japanese star does get a finish then we suggest the double chance of winning in rounds 1-4 or by points at -350.