The two-day boxing extravaganza, or if you prefer, festival, got to a great, dramatic start earlier today in Tokyo, Japan. Fans saw a big upset, as Takuma Inoue lost his WBA bantamweight title when his countryman Seiya Tsutsumi won via 12 12-round unanimous decision. While Kenshiro Teraji, AKA “The Amazing Boy,” busted up and stopped Cristofer Rosales via 11th round corner retirement to win the vacant WBC flyweight title, with Teraji now a two-weight champion.
Also on the card, Shokichi Iwata stopped Jairo Noriega in the third round to win the vacant WBO light flyweight title, and Seigo Yuri Akui retained his WBA flyweight title with a 12-round split decision win over Thananchai Charanphak.
The biggest story is, of course, the shock loss suffered by “the other Inoue,” Takuma Inoue, brother of “The Monster,” Naoya Inoue. In a superb, if somewhat surprisingly one-sided, action fight, Tsutsumi, at just 12-0-2 courtesy of his huge win, overcame a strong start by Inoue. He went on to outfight and outwork the defending champion, with Tsutsumi being credited with a knockdown in round 11 and Inoue insisting he had slipped.
28-year-old Tsutsumi was taking a big step up in class today, and with the win, he ripped up some big plans on the part of Inoue, now 20-2(5). As fans may recall, Naoya Inoue laid down the challenge to potential super-fight foe Junto Nakatanki to “go through Takuma before moving up (in weight) to fight me.” Nakatani was up for a fight with both Inoue brothers; now, that fight with Takuma is off the table.
Where Takuma Inoue goes now will prove interesting, while new champ Tsutsumi has put himself smack, bang in the middle of the big-fight picture (the folks at RingTV.com are calling today’s winning fight by Tsutsumi a Fight of the Year contender). How good is Tsutsumi? Did Inoue merely have an off-night? Will there be a rematch?
“Amazing Boy” Teraji broke Rosales’ nose quite painfully early in the fight, and eventually, the co-challenger and former WBC champ at 112 pounds had to be pulled out. The courage shown by the Nicaraguan warrior matched the sheer class of Teraji, who is one of the best lower-weight fighters in the sport today.
Tomorrow in Tokyo, we will see Nakatani in action against Tasana Salapat in a WBC bantamweight title fight. The always-exciting Kosei Tanaka will defend his WBO junior bantamweight strap against Phumelele Cafu, and WBO flyweight champ Anthony Olascuaga will defend against Jonathan Gonzalez.
It promises to be another great day of boxing from the sport’s little giants.
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