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) 

Boxing Challenge: Upset of the Millenium?

  Larry Merchant used to call boxing "The Theatre of the Absurd" when crazy things would happen on HBO's broadcasts and what he meant was anything can happen in our nutty sport.

Saturday night in Fresno, California, some may have recalled Merchant's phrase and yet others may have preferred the phrase from childhood "Whatever comes around goes around" when you saw someone get their comeuppance.

By all accounts, Mikey Garcia had a great career in winning titles in three divisions but he often was his own worst enemy outside the ring in refusing to budge in order to make career-defining fights, several long layoffs between fights, promotional disputes, and a refusal to see that one doesn't become an A-side until you compromise a little to defeat an A-side fighter or two.

Add to that what seemed to be an almost disdain for the sport and one could easily see Mikey Garcia being upset by a lesser fighter sooner or later.

What no one saw as Spaniard Sandor Martin, who had lost to the only name fighter on his record in former title challenger Anthony Yigit, and was a more than prohibitive underdog to be overwhelmed by Garcia in yet another Garcia "need to get the rust off" after a self-enforced inactive period, take advantage of an unprepared and unmotivated Garcia to win a shocking majority decision in arguably the biggest upset in years.

The fight was slow and lacked a lot of action, so Martin did the one thing that he could do to win, even against a dull Garcia- stick, move, and pray for help on the scorecards.

Martin controlled through his boxing from outside with Garcia throwing just one punch at a time and the big question was this- Would the unknown fighter get the close decision that he deserved against the hometown big name?

To my surprise, he did with two scores of 96-94 (same as mine) and a third of a 98-92 for a majority decision that was as big of a surprise as any fight in recent years.

Matchroom CEO Eddie Hearn stated that there was not a rematch clause for the two but really a rematch will be the largest financial option for Martin and for Garcia, he almost will have to defeat Martin in order to return to contender status.

Mikey Garcia always talked about how much he never liked boxing and with his behavior towards the business of boxing Garcia showed that out.

However, it is not unfair to consider that Mikey Garcia may have already given boxing the best that the sport will see and what boxing historians and fans could eventually decide about Mikey Garcia for all of his accomplishments that boxing never saw the best that he could have offered.

In the co-feature, mandatory challenger Jonathan Gonzalez spoiled the plans for a light flyweight unification fight as Gonzalez won the WBO title via split decision over Elwin Soto.

In many ways, Gonzalez's win was very much like the victory that would follow later in the evening by Sandor Martin- Gonzalez used the stick and move method and held off the weak aggression of Soto that probably deserved a unanimous decision rather than a split nod.

Gonzalez winning two cards (and mine) at 116-112 with a pretty bad 116-112 card for Soto in opposition was the fair result and ruined a unification fight with Soto and WBA champion Hiroto Kyoguchi that was planned for next year.

The best fighter of the weekend won his showcase bout in his home country as Mairis Bredis kept his IBF cruiserweight belt with a third-round knockout of Germany's Artur Mann in Riga, Latvia.

Breidis knocked Mann down in the second round before adding two more in the third to finish the outmatched Mann.

Breidis did announce his intention to face the second-best fighter in the division, England's Lawrence Okolie, and unify the IBF and WBO titles before both fighters would move to the heavyweight division.

It's the best fight that can be made with the cruiserweight and hopefully can be signed for the first half of 2021.

In Newcastle, England, Hughie Fury defeated Christian Hammer vis TKO when Hammer was unable to continue after the fifth round.

I thought Fury won all five rounds but the fifth round did see several exchanges between the two and the injury to Hammer's bicep that forced the ending in the corner was ill-timed as it occurred just as the fight was starting to open up.

In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored three points to move the total to 140-120.