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One of the best fights of 2022 is just days away.
Next Tuesday, the two best standards of Jr. around the world will lock horns in Saitama, Japan (ESPN+. 4:30 AM EST). 30-year-old two-time WBC titlist Kenshiro Teraji (19-1, 11 KO) and 28-year-old Ring Magazine / WBA titlist Hiroto Kyuguchi (16-0, 11 KO) felt like a natural clash for a few years. Teraji’s surprise upset last September created uncertainty about the crisis but the correction was swift.
Teraji bounced back from a tenth round stoppage to Masamichi Yabuki with instant revenge in March, getting revenge in three frames. Kyuguchi has played well this year, knocking out contender Esteban Bermudez in eight. Both camps made the right decision not to waste time.
The bond is signed, sealed, and soon to be delivered at 108 lbs.
When the bell rings, fans will be treated to a new chapter in the short but satisfying history of the division’s unifying rivalry.
Of course, unity was not the norm in the divide. After the WBC won the first title in the division in April 1975, it was absent for more than ten years. The WBA added the belt months after the WBC and IBF merged when they were born in 1983. There were some amazing fighters who made their bones in Jr. Flyweight over the years. Yoko Gushiken, Hilario Zapata, Jung-Koo Chang, and Myung-Woo Yuh are all in the Hall of Fame.
No one has ever been able to unite in the division.
Despite the belt, it took a special kind of skill to be in the right place at the right time to be more than just another person with a belt. For fans of the segment, it was worth the wait of nearly twenty years.
On March 13, 1993, 1988 US Olympic silver medalist and IBF medalist Michael Carbajal came off the drawing board twice to defeat WBC belter Humberto Gonzalez in a straight fight. The epic encounter has been years in the making, and the chaos continues despite Gonzalez’s upset with Rolando Pascua along the way. He won Ring Magazine’s Man of the Year and Carbajal was honored by the magazine as Man of the Year.
Every game of unity in Jr. The flyweight has since, and will forever, be measured against the same standard as Carbajal-Gonzalez I. No one has had a more impressive performance than Teraji-Kyoguchi, the track record says no. bad fight in the gang.
The two titles tied at Carbajal-Gonzalez were eventually separated and the next time the two titleholders would face each other was on December 13, 2003. The event was one to forget because the fight did not end in America is not until later as a rope. playback, occurs when the television is turned off as part of the check-in card.
The card is loaded. One of the last cards of the Don King Marathon of the past, which gathered great fights and attractions on top of each other, the unification conflict between Rosendo Alvarez (WBA) and Victor Burgos (IBF) struggled for attention on the night of Bernard Hopkins played. -William Joppy with support from the united welterweight fight (Cory Spinks-Ricardo Mayorga) and the contest between John Ruiz and Hasim Rahman.
Alvarez had the advantage in the fight but Burgos gave the confidence throughout the fight. At the end of twelve rounds, both fighters settled into a draw and their big fights throughout the night made for an entertaining affair to follow.
The next time the connection arrived Jr. flyweight, fans were treated to something almost as good as Carbajal-Gonzalez. The great boxer Ivan Calderon started on August 28, 2008 as an undefeated line, Ring Magazine, and WBO Jr. the flying king. He ended it as half of The Ring magazine’s Fight of the Year, an interesting tradition that brought Calderon’s skills and the power of the WBA named Giovani Segura.
Calderon rocked Segura in spots but it was Segura’s power and physicality that settled their case. In the eighth, Segura’s attack to the body and upper body forced Calderon to kneel in the corner. He stayed there until he was ten.
The last time there was a boxing match where the players of Jr. on December 31, 2017. WBA champion Ryoichi Taguchi enters the fight after six WBA title defenses. Melindo has defended his IBF belt twice and is coming off a dominant win over Hekkie Budler. In the most one-sided of these unification conflicts, Taguchi surpassed Melindo for the greatest achievement of his career.
If the system holds, each connection in Jr. The flyweight was classic and there wasn’t a bad fight in the bunch. They may not happen often, but the track record says that Teraji-Kyoguchi should be up to the task of keeping the rules set for them.
Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene, a founding member of the World Boxing Organization, a member of the World Boxing Research Association, and a member of the Writers Guild of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
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