That\u2019s why it was hard to watch the Kyoto-born warrior in emotional turmoil in December when his IBF junior bantamweight title shot fell through at the 11th hour. Defending titleholder Willibaldo Garcia fell sick following the weigh-in and was pulled from the show.<\/p>\n
Teraji and his team were inconsolable in the lobby of the fighter hotel as they awaited transport to the airport. A career-high payday was lost at Ring V in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia \u2014 which featured Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani in separate bouts \u2014 while months of training had come to nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt pretty devastating at the time. It might have hit me harder than actually losing a fight,\u201d said Teraji via translator. \u201cNow I\u2019m focused on what\u2019s next and training hard, so I don\u2019t think it\u2019s something I\u2019ll dwell on.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cMy fight in Saudi Arabia was supposed to be my first overseas bout, although it ended up being canceled. I\u2019d still like to experience fighting abroad at least once, so if an opportunity comes up, I\u2019d be happy to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Garcia vs. Teraji could not be rescheduled. The IBF\u2019s mandatory challenger, Andrew Moloney, is scheduled for a world title shot with Mexico\u2019s Garcia on June 6 on Japanese soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think it\u2019s a bit unfair, but the IBF made the decision, so there\u2019s not much I can do about it,\u201d said Teraji with a sigh. \u201cI think the winner [of Garcia vs. Moloney] will probably end up fighting Bam Rodriguez.\u201d<\/p>\n
It might come as a surprise to some, but Teraji is far from being a boxing fan. The ex-champ was completely unaware that plans are already afoot for Rodriguez to be matched against newly minted pound-for-pound king Inoue in early 2027.<\/p>\n
First, Rodriguez has to overcome WBA bantamweight titleholder Antonio Vargas on June 13 in his hometown of San Antonio. If he does, then Teraji may be well-placed to contest one of the vacant 115-pound titles that he leaves behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf [he vacates], then yeah, it could create a chance for me, which I\u2019d be grateful for,\u201d said Teraji, his eyes widening. \u201cI did want to fight Bam, but that seems unlikely, so my immediate goal is to win a belt at [junior bantamweight].<\/p>\n
Teraji (25-2, 16 KOs) has no interest in avenging July\u2019s heartbreaking points loss to Ricardo Sandoval, surrendering his WBA and WBC flyweight titles. Reading between the lines, the 34-year-old boxer-puncher\u2019s move up in weight might be a necessity at this point.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
There are some interesting options at 115 pounds. Among them are ex-titleholder Fernando Martinez, who suffered his only loss to Rodriguez in November, and Teraji\u2019s countryman Tomoya Tsuboi, who has been fast-tracked to No. 4 in The Ring\u2019s 115-pound ratings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not in a position where I\u2019m holding a world title, so I haven\u2019t really been in a spot to choose opponents,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re both well-known fighters, so I\u2019d be happy if a fight with either of them gets made.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m doing a lot of sparring and working on different styles for my next fight. It\u2019s been enjoyable and fulfilling. That said, I\u2019ve been away from competition for a while, so I do feel like I need to get back in the ring soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite his recent run of luck, Teraji remains one of the most decorated fighters in Japanese boxing history. \u201cThe Amazing Boy\u201d is 16-2 in world title bouts and unified at 108 and 112. He held the Ring Magazine junior flyweight crown and also appeared briefly in the pound-for-pound top 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That\u2019s why it was hard to watch the Kyoto-born warrior in emotional turmoil in December when his IBF…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[59273,2560,151516,6102,37750,101,6826,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-618593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-object-object","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-articles","tag-boxing-news","tag-featured-article","tag-sports","tag-the-ring","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}