TAKING ON THE WORLD
damage from Teraji’s lead hand. According to CompuBox, Teraji is the most prolific jabber in the sport, a rounding error away from pumping 40 jabs per round, which represents more than half of his offensive output overall. That jab also functions as his defense, allowing him to put up Top- 5 defensive metrics as well, and that’s even after tabulating an absolute war with Akui in which he was hit – and hit hard – plenty. Garcia’s strength is in his steadfast resolve to continue applying pressure, and in his unorthodox approach. Garcia will wing wild right hands that sometimes just function as a decoy to get him to the inside where he can roughhouse, but they’re thrown with enough conviction to be a true threat against lower-level opposition. The last time Teraji came back after a loss, he avenged defeat against Masamichi Yabuki with a third-round knockout. He won’t have immediate revenge on his mind this time, but something even more significant in the broader landscape: A win over Garcia would make Teraji a three-weight titleholder and introduce the mouth- watering possibility of Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez vs. The Amazing Boy. 4. Hayato Tsutsumi vs. James Dickens
Three fights ago, Hayato Tsutsumi did what no man had done for over nine years by stopping Rene Alvarado. In the bout before that, Tsutsumi came in heavy for his featherweight match against Anselmo Moreno, who was knocked out in three rounds. As a result of the infraction, the Japanese Boxing Commission suspended Tsutsumi, who moved up to 130 pounds for the Alvarado fight upon his return. Nonetheless, the 2016 World Youth amateur champion has compiled an impressive hit list in just eight pro fights, most recently defeating Jaime Arboleda and Qais Ashfaq, both by third-round stoppage. His opponent, “Jazza” Dickens, finds himself in a near-identical situation as he was in last time out, when he shocked Olympic gold medalist Albert Batyrgaziev, pummeling and stopping him in four rounds. Dickens showed some surprising pop in that bout, and he’ll have another hittable opponent in front of him in Tsutsumi, who is not afraid of an exchange. Will the Batyrgaziev win prove to be the last hurrah for Dickens, or is it a late-career surge?
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title-unification bouts in history have involved him. His first was the victory over Hiroto Kyoguchi to unify at junior flyweight, and he then seized a flyweight unification victory over Seigo Yuri Akui. In order to beat Akui in what may still be the clubhouse leader for Fight of the Year at the time of publication, Teraji needed a final-round rally to produce a knockout. In real time, there were notes of it potentially being a last stand of sorts for “The Amazing Boy,” as if he’d emptied the tank completely in a way that might not be replicable, at least at 112 pounds. Prior to the bout, he openly discussed wanting to move up in weight. Instead, he chose to stay at 112 for one more fight and dropped a shocking decision to Ricardo Sandoval in July. While many observers felt that Teraji deserved the nod, if not for Joseph Gwilt’s unusually wide 117-110 scorecard for Sandoval, there probably wouldn’t have been mention of it being a “robbery.” It was a close, competitive fight in which Sandoval was every bit as good as one of this era’s very best on the night. Though a win would’ve given Teraji a clean exit from the second division he ruled, it’s fair to ask two questions: Did he overstay his welcome one fight too long? And regardless of what the answer to that is, has he also reached his physical peak? Even against Akui, Teraji was not able to “physically overwhelm”
him in the way he’d vowed. Now, Teraji will test the waters at 115 pounds against IBF titleholder Willibaldo Garcia, The Ring’s No. 8-rated junior bantamweight. But if questions about a ticking clock are being whispered for Teraji, they’re being spoken at full volume for Garcia, who capped off a feel-good story by winning a world title at the age of 35 after starting his career 1-3. Will that title-winning effort against Rene Calixto be his career peak, the gold watch reward for enduring the hard road, or does he have more left in the tank? From a technical perspective, the fight may boil down to whether Garcia can neutralize or at least minimize
with his older brother Hayato on this night as the two continue to travel eerily similar paths. Like his brother, Reito was a world amateur champion as a youth and competed in the same “senior” Worlds as his brother in 2021. Like Hayato, he waited until he was finished at university before focusing on the pro ranks. The siblings have fought around the same divisions thus far, and though Hayato is further along in his development, it’s Reito who is considered the better prospect, earning him status as a Ring Magazine ambassador and placement on three massive Riyadh Season undercards already. His next assignment is
Mexicali’s Leobardo “El Chino” Quintana, whose record stands at 12-1 (5 KOs). This weight neighborhood is seemingly a constant battleground between Japan and Mexico, so if scouting reports prove to be true and Reito is indeed the next Japanese star- in-waiting, this should serve as an early preview for what’s in store for him in the not-too-distant future.
6. Taiga Imanaga vs. Armando Martinez
5. Reito Tsutsumi vs. Leobardo Quintana
Unlike his countrymen on this card, Taiga Imanaga had an elongated amateur career by Japanese standards. Imanaga was 113-13 in the unpaid ranks, one of the best high school boxers in the history of a country where scholastic boxing is taken quite seriously. In mid-September, the 26-year- old cruised to victory against Yudai Murakami, becoming the 66th Japanese (domestic) lightweight champion. He’ll have a tough assignment in his graduating bout beyond domestic level as he takes on hard-hitting Cuban Armando Martinez. Martinez was second on the depth chart only to the great Lazaro Alvarez in the Cuban national amateur system before turning pro in 2021.
Reito Tsutsumi will share the card
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