Brutal battle: Teraji ekes out win vs. Canizales, retains 108 belts
Akui routs Dalakian in upset to claim WBA flyweight title; Nasukawa, the kickboxing star, scores 1st boxing stoppage
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Kenshiro Teraji and Carlos Canizales threw down in an all-out slugfest of the highest order in which they both got knocked down in an early fight of the year contender.
But in the end it was Teraji who eked out a majority decision to retain the lineal and unified WBC/WBA junior flyweight titles in the main event of the Teiken Promotions card on Tuesday at Edion Arena in Osaka, Japan, that streamed on ESPN+ in the United States.
Canadian judge Jeremy Hayes scored the fight 113-113 but he was overruled by Mexico’s Omar Mintun and South Korea’s Jun-Bae Lim, who both had it 114-112 for Teraji.
While the fight was indeed as close and competitive as the scorecards indicated — it was 94-94 on all three scorecards after the 10th round — Teraji resorted to running and refused to engage for most of the final two rounds. Despite that, two judges gave him the 11th round and all three shockingly gave him the 12th, when he appeared to do absolutely nothing, allowing him to pull out the decision.
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