Notebook: Teraji dominates, stops Kyoguchi to unify jr. flyweight titles

Zepeda-Prograis PPV undercard set; Quick hits; Show and tell

Nov 02, 2022

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Kenshiro Teraji scored two knockdowns in a one-sided but entertaining seventh-round knockout of Japanese countryman Hiroto Kyoguchi to unify the WBC and WBA junior flyweight titles on Tuesday at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

The fight, streamed on ESPN+ in the United States, was a rare 108-pound unification fight and one that Teraji won comfortably to also take The Ring championship from Kyoguchi.

Teraji, known as “The Amazing Boy,” controlled the fight from the outset and knocked Kyoguchi down with a right hand in the fifth round before finishing him in the seventh.

In the wild fifth round, Teraji landed the right hand to drop Kyoguchi less than a minute into the round. He beat the count but took punishment from Teraji for most of the rest of the round before rallying in the final 30 seconds, when he knocked Teraji into the ropes in his biggest moment of the fight.

Teraji shook it off, however, and in the seventh round nailed Kyoguchi with a right hand that sent him into the ropes before falling to the canvas as referee Michiaki Someya waved off the fight at 2 minutes, 36 seconds.

“I did it. I finally got two belts,” Teraji said through an interpreter. “It was a learning experience for me. I know if I’m calm and patient I can do my fight. I was relaxed coming into the ring because I had a really good training camp, but as I got into the ring I got a little nervous. This really meant a lot to me.”

Teraji (20-1, 12 KOs), 30, led 60-54, 60-53 and 60-53 at the time of the stoppage as he retained the WBC title for the first time in his second title reign. In March, Teraji knocked out Masamichi Yabuki in the third round to regain the 108-pound title he had lost to him by upset 10th-round knockout in September 2021.

Kyoguchi (16-1, 11 KOs), 28, a former strawweight titlist widely considered No. 1 at junior flyweight going into the bout, had made four successful defenses before losing to Teraji in the first world title unification fight between Japanese boxers since then-WBC strawweight titleholder Kazuto Ioka defeated WBA titleholder Akira Yaegashi in 2012.

Teraji’s victory was a continuation of the edge he had against Kyoguchi in the amateur ranks, where he was 3-1 against him.

Teraji now hopes to further unify the division with WBO titleholder Jonathan Gonzalez.

“Before the fight I had a conversation with Jonathan Gonzalez and said it would be nice if we could get in the ring together,” Teraji said. “I think we are one step closer to making it happen so please everyone look forward to our fight.”

In the co-feature, Gonzalez (27-3-1, 14 KOs), 31, a Puerto Rican southpaw, retained the title for the second time as he won a unanimous decision over Shokichi Iwata (9-1, 6 KOs), 26, of Japan. Gonzalez used his quick feet and movement to win 117-111, 116-112 and 116-112.

Also on the card:

Junto Nakatani (24-0, 18 KOs), a 24-year-old Japanese southpaw, who recently gave up the WBO flyweight title, moved up to junior bantamweight and won a unanimous decision over former unified strawweight titlist Francisco Rodriguez Jr. (36-6-1, 25 KOs), 30, of Mexico. Nakatani won 99-90, 98-91 and 97-92.
Lightweight Shuichiro Yoshino (16-0, 11 KOs), 30, retained a regional title by sixth-round knockout of Masayoshi Nakatani (20-3, 14 KOs), 33, in an all-Japanese bout. Yoshino scored knockdowns in the fifth and sixth rounds and opened a deep cut under Nakatani’s left eye. He fell to 2-3 in his last five bouts with the other losses coming by ninth-round knockout to Vasiliy Lomachenko in June 2021 and unanimous decision to Teofimo Lopez in a July 2019 world title eliminator.

Zepeda-Prograis PPV undercard

MarvNation Promotions and Legendz Entertainment announced the pay-per-view undercard for the vacant WBC junior welterweight title bout between Jose Zepeda (35-2, 27 KOs) and Regis Prograis (27-1, 23 KOs), which will take place on Nov. 26 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

In the co-feature, Evelyn Bermudez (17-0-1, 6 KOs), 26, of Argentina, will defend her unified women’s junior flyweight world titles against unified strawweight champion Yokasta Valle (26-2, 9 KOs), 30, of Costa Rica, who will move up in weight.

Junior middleweight up-and-comer Charles Conwell (17-0, 13 KOs), 24, a 2016 U.S. Olympian from Cleveland, will face Juan Carlos Abreu (25-6-1, 23 KOs), 35, of the Dominican Republic, in a 10-rounder, confirming a previous Fight Freaks Unite report. Abreu has won two fights in a row since a sixth-round knockout loss to Jaron Ennis in September 2020.

Bakhodir Jalolov (11-0, 11 KOs), 28, of Uzbekistan, the 2020 Olympic super heavyweight gold medalist, will also be on the card, as Fight Freaks Unite previously reported. The southpaw will face Curtis Harper (14-8, 9 KOs), 34, of Jacksonville, Florida, in his first scheduled 10-rounder.

In the six-rounder opener, junior middleweight prospect Fernando Vargas Jr. (6-0, 6 KOs), 25, a southpaw from Las Vegas, who one of the fighting sons of former two-time junior middleweight world titleholder Fernando Vargas Sr., will face an opponent to be determined.

Quick hits

The IBF on Tuesday scheduled a purse bid for the vacant junior welterweight title fight between Subriel Matias (18-1, 18 KOs), 30, of Puerto Rico, and Jeremias Ponce (30-0, 20 KOs), 26, of Argentina. It is set for Nov. 15 at 12 p.m. ET at the IBF offices in Springfield, New Jersey, and via video conference. The sides can make a deal up to 15 minutes before bids are unsealed. There is a $5,000 non-refundable fee for promoters to participate. After Josh Taylor vacated to pursue a different fight rather than face mandatory challenger Ponce, the fight was ordered on Aug.23. They still had not reached a deal by the IBF deadline, prompting the purse bid to be scheduled.

The fight between Zach Parker and British countryman John Ryder for the vacant WBO interim super middleweight title on Nov. 26 at The O2 in London will stream live on ESPN+ in the United States, sources with knowledge of the plans, which have not yet been announced, told Fight Freaks Unite. After Demetrius Andrade twice pulled out of facing Parker (22-0, 16 KOs), 28, Ryder (31-5, 17 KOs), a 34-year-old southpaw, was next in line. Because of Andrade’s withdrawals, Parker has not fought since a fourth-round knockout of Marcus Morrison last November. Since losing a decision to then-WBA titlist Callum Smith in November 2019, Ryder has won three fights in a row and is coming off a debatable split decision win over former middleweight titlist Daniel Jacobs on Feb. 12.

The WBA on Tuesday ordered WBA women’s featherweight titlist Erika Cruz (15-1, 3 KOs), 32, of Mexico, to face unified WBC/IBF/WBO champion Amanda Serrano (43-2-1, 30 KOs), 34, a Puerto Rican fighting out of Brooklyn, New York, for the undisputed title. It is highly unusual for an organization to order a mandatory fight between its titleholder and a titleholder from another organization. But the WBA said in its announcement, “After an extensive analysis of the division and after confirming that there is no impediment, the body decided that the best fight for boxing at 126 pounds is this confrontation between Cruz and Serrano.” They have 30 days to make a deal or a purse bid would be ordered at a 50-50 split.

Showtime announced it will stream three bouts from Saturday’s David Morrell-Aidos Yerbossynuly undercard in Minneapolis. The stream begins at 6:30 p.m. ET on the Showtime Boxing Facebook page and Showtime Sports YouTube channel. It will conclude with a 10-round light heavyweight fight between Andre Dirrell (28-3, 18 KOs), 39, a Flint, Michigan, and Yunieski Gonzalez (21-4, 17 KOs), 37, a Cuban fighting out of Miami. Also, former unified junior middleweight titlist Julian Williams (27-3-1, 16 KOs), 32, of Philadelphia, will face Rolando Wenceslao Mansilla (18-11-1, 8 KOs), 36, of Argentina, in an eight-round middleweight bout. In the opener, junior welterweights Kent Cruz (16-0-2, 10 KOs), 29, of St. Louis, and Enriko Gogokhia (13-0-1, 8 KOs), 31, a Republic of Georgia native based in Woodland Hills, California, meet in an eight-round rematch of a split draw in February.

Show and tell

Featherweight champion Prince Naseem Hamed had come from England from the United States for the first fight of his big HBO contract and engaged in an incredibly exciting shootout with former titlist Kevin Kelley before knocking him out in the fourth round at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Hamed’s next fight was back in England but then he returned to America for the third fight of the deal and made his 11th WBO title defense against Irishman Wayne McCullough, a former bantamweight titleholder, at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Hamed predicted a third-round knockout but McCullough had one of the best chins ever. The Prince came nowhere near stopping him en route to a decision win (118-110, 117-111, 116-110). It may have been a routine defense for Hamed but for me it was an extremely memorable event. The reason: It was the first of the 236 HBO boxing events I covered at ringside over the next 20 years and it was the first time I met many people in the boxing business I am still in touch with today. I have vivid memories of those couple of days I spent in Atlantic City.

I was there because I was in a loan program at USA Today, a position I applied for at the newspaper I worked at in Binghamton, New York, that was part of Gannett, which also owned the company flagship paper USA Today. The program required the Binghamton paper to send one staffer to the mother ship in Northern Virginia for the four-month program. I applied and was picked. Off I went for four months in the sports department at USA Today, literally a dream come true. I was assigned to the baseball desk and was part of the team that covered the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa home run chase of 1998. I even wrote the story on Cal Ripken Jr. ending his consecutive games played streak that was my first story stripped across the top of the front page of the paper. After the baseball season I covered college basketball and football and the NFL. But I, along with the others in my loan group, were told that if there was something we wanted to do besides what we were assigned to ask and they’d try to make it happen. I wanted to write about boxing and asked. The editors were terrific in accommodating me. I wrote a few boxing stories and then asked if I could do something on Hamed-Kelley. Not only did they say yes, they said go to Atlantic City to cover the fight. And that is exactly what I did and I will never forget it, including Hamed’s legendary ring walk to “Thriller” as he danced through a mock graveyard knocking skulls off headstones on Halloween night, Oct. 31, 1998 — 24 years ago on Monday. Here is my ringside credential in my collection.

P.S. When the loan ended, I returned to the Binghamton paper. A little over a year later those same editors hired me to be the full-time boxing writer at USA Today, where I would spend the next five years.