By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda
A press conference of the forthcoming quadruple event took place on Sunday with all the participants attending in Tokyo, Japan. The headliners were WBC 108-pound champion Kenshiro Teraji (19-1, 11 KOs) and WBA super champ Hiroto Kyoguchi (16-1, 11 KOs), both of Japan, who will square off for unification at the Saitama Super Arena on Tuesday. The boyish-looking Kenshiro, 30, said, “If victorious, I wish to fight the WBO champion to unify three belts.” The unbeaten hard-puncher Kyoguchi, 28, said, “I wish to prove I’ll be physically and biologically superior to Teraji, and will concentrate on this fight.”
The WBO junior flyweight defending titleholder Jonathan Gonzalez (26-3-1-1NC, 14 KOs), Puerto Rico, confidently said, “It’s hard to beat and dethrone me.” His Japanese challenger Shokichi Iwata (9-0, 6 KOs) said, “He will move well, but I’d like to catch up with him and finish him.”
Having lately renounced his WBO flyweight belt, unbeaten Junto Nakatani, a tall and hard-hitting southpaw, will take on ex-minimumweight ruler Francisco Rodriguez, Mexico, in his first super-fly bout. Nakatani, 24, said, “I hope to show a good performance so that I’ll be a champ again in the 115-pound class.”
Unbeaten WBO Asia Pacific lightweight titlist Shuichiro Yoshino will defend his regional belt against elongated ex-OPBF ruler Masayoshi Nakatani over twelve. Yoshino said, “The victor of this bout will go to a world title competition, hopefully.” Nakatani responded to his comment, saying “I’ll demonstrate a good fight mentally and spiritually.”
This sensational event presented by Teiken Promotions will be shown live through streaming by Amazon Prime Video here in Japan without any television coverage. ESPN+ will stream in the USA.
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Just an excellent card. Unification at the top, and on the undercard you have another champion from the same weight division who likely gets the winner of the main event; you have the two best lightweights in Japan, one of whom has fought some of the best fighters in the division and you have a very impressive, young and undefeated former world champion moving up to fight a former unified world champion who’s only lost one fight in the last seven years. Let’s go!