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Kenshiro Teraji Will Meet Gonzalez For Junior Flyweight Unification

Kenshiro Teraji Will Meet Gonzalez For Junior Flyweight Unification

Boxing News

Kenshiro Teraji Will Meet Gonzalez For Junior Flyweight Unification

Naoki Fukuda photo

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.

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A veteran broadcaster of over 25 years, T.J. has been a fight fan longer than that! He’s the host of the “Big Fight Weekend” podcast and will go “toe to toe” with anyone who thinks that Marvin Hagler beat Sugar Ray Leonard or that Tyson, Lennox Lewis or Deontay Wilder could have beaten Ali!

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