Kosei Tanaka vs Christian Bacasegua Rangel Preview February 24th, 2024
Former three-weight world champion Kosei Tanaka of Japan takes on Christian Bacasegua Rangel of Mexico for the vacant WBO Super Flyweight title in Tokyo this Saturday, February 24th. The 12-rounder can be seen live in America on ESPN+ with the card getting underway at approximately 4 am. Tanaka last fought in may when he stopped Pablo Carrillo with 17 seconds remaining in their 10-round tilt. Bacasegua Rangel’s last fight took place in October when he halted Eliud De los Santos in the second round. Tanaka has won four straight fights since the former WBO Flyweight Champion lost to WBO Super Flyweight Champion Kazuto Ioka via an eighth-round stoppage in a move up in weight in late 2020.
Tanaka vs Bacasegua Rangel Betting Odds
Here are the betting odds from online sportsbook BetOnline.ag (full review here).
- Christian Bacasegua Rangel +400
- Kosei Tanaka -600
My Pick
The 28-year-old Tanaka is hoping to join Kazuto Ioka and Naoya Inoue as the only male Japanese boxers to win a world title in four weight divisions. He won the WBO Flyweight Title by majority decision against Sho Kimura in 2018 in my pick as the fight of the year. He defended the crown six months later by unanimous decision against fellow countryman Ryoichi Taguchi in another classic then retained it against Jonathan Gonzalez by seventh-round stoppage in August, 2019 before stopping Wulan Tuolehazi in the third round and losing to Ioka on New Year’s Eve 2020.
Tanaka has fought just 20 times as a pro and owns a mark of 19-1 with 11 Ko’s. He and Vasyl Lomachenko share the world record for the fewest fights (12) to become three-weight world champions as Tanaka has also owned the WBO Minimumweight and Light Flyweight Crowns and also beat Masayoshi Hashizume in June, 2022 for the WBO Asia Pacific Super Flyweight Belt. He’s well known for his volume punching and aggression and is an extremely exciting boxer to watch. He turned pro in 2013 after a fine amateur career and has boxed 161 rounds since.
Tanaka captured the vacant Minimumweight Title in 2015 with a unanimous decision over Julian Yedras and defended it once. He stopped Moises Fuentes in the fifth round a year later to capture the vacant Light Flyweight Title and defended it against Angel Acosta and Rangsan Chayanram and added his third title against Sho Kimura. Tanaka stands just over 5-feet-4-inches tall and has a wingspan of 64.5 inches. As far as power goes, 58 per cent of his wins have come by stoppage and has gone the distance in two of his last four fights.
Bacasegua Rangel is 26 years old and carries a record of 22-4-2 with 9 Ko’s and has 147 rounds of experience under his belt since making his pro debut in 2015 as a teenager. Unfortunately there’s no height and reach information on him so we don’t know exactly how he stacks up size-wise against Tanaka. He’s not really known as a power puncher as 41 per cent of his victories have come by stoppage and he’s gone the distance in his last four fights.
The four losses on Bacasegua Rangel’s record came at the hands of Luis Rosales by four-round split decision in 2016; by fourth-round TKO to Julio Abel Robles in 2018; to Leonardo Baez by 10-round split decision in 2019 and a 10-round majority decision to Moises Calleros in 2019 in a shot at the vacant WBO NABO Flyweight Title. He drew with Andres Alanis over four rounds in his pro debut and fought to a three-round technical draw with with Adrian Camacho in his third pro outing.
As a pro, Bacasegua Rangel captured the vacant WBO Latino Super Flyweight Belt in May, 2021 when he beat Juan Ramirez Marquez by 10-round unanimous decision. He also has wins over Erick Gonzalez Hernandez, Luis Castillo, Erick Omar Lopez and Omar Aguilar. He’ll be taking a step up in class against Tanaka this weekend and will be fighting outside of his homeland of Mexico for the first time as a pro.
Prediction…
Anytime Tanaka steps into the ring it has the potential to be one of the fights of the year due to his volume punching and heart. He also has a great chin even though he was stopped by Ioka in 2020. Bacasegua Rangel appears to lack the power to keep Tanaka off of him for 12 rounds while Tanaka possesses natural aggression in the ring and doesn’t mind taking a shot to land one of his own anyway. Tanaka needs to throw as many punches as possible to keep Bacasegua Rangel on his back foot and if he does I’m expecting him to become a four-weight world champion this weekend.
Tanaka is a class above his opponent at this stage of their careers.
Play: Tanaka -600 @ BetOnline.ag
Check out my recent boxing betting picks to see my current form.
Christian Bacasegua Rangel betting • Kosei Tanaka betting