Teraji (left) and Kyoguchi at the weigh-in for the November 1 clash. (Photo by Naoki Fukuda)
Kenshiro Teraji had Hiroto Kyoguchi’s number in the amateurs and he fought with that confidence throughout their junior flyweight title unification bout, which he won by seventh-round stoppage on Tuesday in Saitama, Japan.
Teraji (20-1, 11 KOs) outworked Kyoguchi from start to finish, and made it an easy fight to score when he boxed from a distance. The two-time WBC titleholder stepped up his aggression in Round 4 and then scored a knockdown with a right cross at the start of a sensational Round 5, which saw Kyoguchi rage back before the bell. The Ring/WBA champ was game and able to land solid shots here and there during the fight but he simply didn’t do enough to win rounds or prevent Teraji’s constant jab and well-timed arrow-straight right hands from wearing him down (despite his high guard and the threat of his uppercuts).
The fight appeared over in Round 5 after Kyoguchi (16-1, 11 KOs) got up from his first knockdown on wobbly legs. Teraji, The Ring’s No. 1-rated junior flyweight, jumped on the two-division titleholder and battered him along the ropes. But Kyoguchi covered up and weathered the storm, lashing back with head-snapping right hands and uppercuts.
However, Teraji resumed distance control in Round 6 and kept his high-volume assault going, preventing Kyoguchi from recovering. Kyoguchi had moments in Round 7 but he was sleep walking and punching on muscle memory by this point in what was a mainly one-sided fight. When Teraji landed a sweet right hand two and half minutes into the round the last bit of resistance was drained from the legs of Kyoguchi, who stumbled into the ropes where he was saved by the referee.
