Kenshiro Teraji Will Meet Gonzalez For Junior Flyweight Unification

Kenshiro Teraji, the WBC/WBA junior flyweight champion, and WBO titlist Jonathan Gonzalez will meet in a three-belt unification fight as has been expected. But on Monday the fight was formally announced at a news conference for a major card on April 8 at Ariake Arena in Koto-Ku, Japan.

The fight will stream live in the United States on ESPN+ in the morning.

Teraji and Gonzalez both won on the same card on Nov. 1 in Saitama, Japan, with their unification expected to be made soon after.

On that card, Teraji (20-1, 12 KOs), 31, of Japan, scored two knockdowns in a surprisingly one-sided seventh-round knockout of countryman Hiroto Kyoguchi to unify the two 108-pound belts and win The Ring magazine title. In the co-feature, Gonzalez (27-3-1, 14 KOs), 31, a Puerto Rican southpaw, retained his belt for the second time in a unanimous decision over Japan’s Shokichi Iwata.

In November, Teraji was ordered by the WBC to make a mandatory defense against Hekkie Budler but he agreed to step aside to allow the unification bout to go forward and likely will get a shot at the winner.

Strong undercard

In the co-feature, Takuma Inoue (17-1, 4 KOs), 27, of Japan, and former junior bantamweight titlist Liborio Solis (35-6-1, 16 KOs), 40, of Venezuela, will square off for the vacant WBA bantamweight title. The title became vacant when Naoya Inoue, Takuma’s older brother, relinquished the undisputed championship.
Takuma Inoue, a former WBC interim titlist, has won four fights in a row since a decision loss to then-WBC titlist Nordine Oubaali. Solis is getting is fifth shot at a bantamweight world title, having gone 0-3 with a no decision.

Technically, the main event of the card will be the pro boxing debut of Japanese kickboxing star Tenshin Nasukawa, 24, a junior featherweight, who signed last week with Teiken Boxing. He is 42-0 in kickboxing but best known to boxing fans for being dropped three times and obliterated in the first round of an exhibition bout against then 41-year-old and much bigger Floyd Mayweather on Dec. 31, 2018 in Saitama.

Also on the card, Reiya Abe (24-3-1, 10 KOs), 29, a Japanese southpaw, will face former featherweight and junior featherweight titlist Kiko Martinez (44-11-2, 31 KOs), 36, of Spain, in an IBF featherweight title eliminator. The winner will earn a mandatory shot at titleholder Luis Alberto Lopez.