Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Boxing Challenge; Teraji knocks out Kyoguchi, unifies titles.

  Early Tuesday morning on the East Coast, a terrific card from Saitama, Japan rewarded those who either got up from bed early or stayed up all night with three excellent fights in the boxing challenge.

In the main event, Kenshiro Teraji knocked out Hiroto Kyoguchi in the seventh round to unify the WBA and WBC light flyweight titles.

Teraji is listed as the same height and only a half-inch longer in reach but the WBC champion seemed taller and rangier than his WBA counterpart and when Teraji used that size from the outside, he couldn't miss Kyoguchi with the jab or right hand.

What often makes good fights is when one fighter ignores his advantages and decides to fight and when Teraji made that decision, the fight was quite entertaining with Kyoguchi having more than his share of moments.

Round five may have a claim for the round of the year as Teraji knocked down Kyoguchi and appeared to be on the edge of a stoppage before appearing to punch himself out a bit before Kyoguchi landed a big right hand that had Teraji on the run and when the bell rang to end the round, Kyoguchi looked to be the fighter in better shape.

Teraji calmly boxed in the sixth and came out for the seventh with a second wind, dominating the round and knocking down Kyoguchi late in the round with the referee ending the fight without a count.

I had Teraji ahead 58-55 at the time of the stoppage as Teraji cemented himself as the best light flyweight in the world for the time being and he may have a chance to add another title in the division next year.

Teraji's opponent would be WBO champion Jonathan Gonzalez, who held off a strong early attack from Shokichi Iwata to retain his belt via unanimous decision.

Iwata came forward for the entire fight but was in only his tenth pro fight and when the longer reach of Gonzalez began to make the difference in the middle rounds, Iwata didn't have very much to answer with other than aggression.

Gonzalez has been knocked out in all three of his defeats but against Kenshiro Teraji, he will be hard-pressed to avoid the power of the Japanese star.

I scored Gonzalez a winner at 116-112 which was the same as two judges with a dissenter at 117-111 for Gonzalez.

Junto Nakatani vacated his WBO flyweight title to move to 115 pounds earlier in the week and he earned a unanimous decision over former WBA and IBF mini-flyweight/strawweight champion Francisco Rodriguez in a rough and tumble matchup.

Rodriguez played the role of the wily veteran heel with clutching, grabbing, and other borderline tactics that would cost him one point in the seventh round.

Nakatani will be better for the experience but he still deserved the decision as he landed the better punches.

Nakatani's win on the cards were 99-90, 98-91, and 97-92 with my score the same as the middle ledger.

Nakatani could be facing the winner of the WBA-WBO junior bantamweight unification between Joshua Franco and Kazuto Ioka, a fight that would be huge in Japan, should Ioka emerge as the winner.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 181 Pts (4) 
Ramon Malpica: 154 Pts (0)
Vince Samano: 148 Pts (3) 

No comments: