Boxing: Teraji wins vacant WBC flyweight crown with TKO of Rosales

TOKYO (Kyodo) — A “nervous” Kenshiro Teraji kept his composure to claim the vacant WBC flyweight championship with an 11th-round technical knockout of Cristofer Rosales at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena on Sunday.

Making the step up from light flyweight for the first time, the Japanese boxer took the initiative early against his Nicaraguan opponent, who was accompanied to the ring by Mexico’s three-federation super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, with whom he shares trainer Eddy Reynoso.

The 32-year-old Teraji appeared to break Rosales’ nose with a punishing right hand around a minute into the third round. The Nicaraguan subsequently struggled to stay in the contest and was medically ruled unable to continue at the start of the 11th.

“Firstly, I feel very relieved. I’ve been working on avoiding getting hit while landing punches. I think I was able to do that tonight,” said Teraji, who improved to 24-1 with 15 wins by knockout.

“To be honest, I felt really nervous, much more than usual, right from the walkout. I don’t really remember a great deal, but I’m glad I was able to win despite those nerves.”

The 30-year-old Rosales dropped to 37-7 with 22 wins by KO.

In an all-Japanese battle, Seiya Tsutsumi took the WBA bantamweight belt from Takuma Inoue, brother of undisputed super bantamweight champion Naoya “Monster” Inoue, via unanimous decision after the pair traded blows for 12 action-packed rounds.

The fights were part of a world championship quadruple-header that earlier saw Japan’s Seigo Yuri Akui successfully defend his WBA flyweight title against Thailand’s Thananchai Charunphak and Japan’s Shokichi Iwata beat Spain’s Jairo Noriega for the vacant WBO light flyweight crown.