Boxing Challenge: Teraji, Nakatani retain titles

   Early Monday morning in the United States on ESPN+, two champions retained their titles in Tokyo, Japan against solid but overmatched opposition.

In the main event, Kenshiro Teraji kept his WBA and WBC junior flyweight titles with a ninth-round knockout of former strawweight and light flyweight champion Hekkie Budler.

Budler did reasonably well in the early going as he was very aggressive and managed to back Teraji up in the first two rounds.

Teraji started to turn the tide in the third when his counters started to find their mark against the rushes of Budler, who never stopped coming forward but was less effective by the round and was hampered by a damaged right eye

Teraji stung Budler late in the ninth with a strong right and jumped on the hurt veteran along the ropes, throwing punches until Budler appeared almost ready to go down with the referee ending the fight to allow the brave former champion to end the fight on his feet.

Teraji mentioned and is expected to make a unification match next with WBO champion Jonathan Gonzalez, which was scheduled for earlier this year with Gonzalez falling out of the fight when he caught pneumonia two weeks before the fight.

In the co-feature, Junto Nakatani made a successful first defense of his WBO junior bantamweight title with a unanimous decision win over veteran Argi Cortes.

Cortes gave WBC champion and future Hall of Famer Juan Francisco Estrada a difficult fight in 2022 but he struggled against the taller Nakatani, who knocked Cortes down twice in the fifth round and once in the ninth with bodywork.

Give Cortes credit for hanging tough enough to last the distance and battling through several rocky periods but Nakatani was easily the winner by scores of  119-106 (X 2) and 118-107.

I scored Nakatani a 119-106 winner as well.

Rumors are flying of a possible unification match between Estrada and WBA champion Kazuto Ioka and Nakatani would be interested in the winner, especially if Ioka would emerge with two titles as Ioka held the same WBO title that Nakatani holds but gave it up to face then-WBA champion Joshua Franco in a rematch of a 2021 draw rather than face Nakatani in what would draw a large gate in Japan.

Boxing Challenge

TRS:  146 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 133 Pts (2)

Vince Samano: 101 Pts (3)  

Boxing Challenge: Estrada survives Cortes

   Juan Francisco Estrada and most of the boxing universe expected his bout against Argi Cortes to be two things on Saturday night- a homecoming for the future Hall of Famer for what could be his final fight in front of his hometown crowd and a tuneup fight to be better prepared for a third fight against Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez later this year.

Instead, Estrada was given another fierce battle in a career of fierce battles by Cortes and won a close unanimous decision to retain his silly WBC franchise title and more importantly- the third fight against Gonzalez, which was announced for December third during Estrada's post-fight interview.

Estrada won 115-112 on two cards and 114-113 on the third in the fight that saw each fighter land heavy blows with Cortes bravely battling past a seventh-round knockdown after an Estrada left hook to the body that would have ended the evening for most fighters.

My scorecard was 114-113 for Estrada with the seventh-round knockdown the difference between the two.

Cortes scored often with his right hand during the fight and after six rounds, I thought that Cortes was leading and a massive upset was in the making.

Estrada then crashed his hook in the seventh and while Cortes continued to land in the second half of the fight, the more experienced champion took control of the fight albeit taking punches to do just that.

For Estrada, the Gonzalez fight should be another action fight that will likely come down to another close decision with possibly some controversy as with both of their previous fights.

The surprisingly stern test given to Estrada by Cortes will help him in December as he'll gain some sharpness rather than fighting off a long layoff but give Cortes lots of credit in defeat as he proved his worth and steps into a loaded junior bantamweight division as a legitimate championship contender.

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Cortes challenging for a world title in the near future.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 153 Pts (1)

Ramon Malpica: 132 Pts (1)

Vince Samano: 122 Pts (2)