Teraji prepares to face Cañizalez in Japan

On January 23 at the EDIO Arena in Osaka, Japan, light flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji will face Venezuelan and former world champion, Carlos Cañizalez. The fight will be broadcast on Amazon Prime and ESPN.

Teraji (22-1, 14KOs) will attempt to successfully make the fourth defense of his second and current championship reign and fifteenth title fight. He had previously hoped to face WBO champion, Puerto Rican Jonathan ‘Bomba’ González, but the fight was canceled when González became ill and was unable to travel abroad.

Since then, both have been busy making defenses of their titles, including back-to-back ones by Teraji. Former two-division champion Hekkie Budler was the WBC’s number one contender and was overdue for his title shot, which came on September 18 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.

Teraji won by ninth-round knockout, as was the case in his April title defense against undefeated Anthony Olascuaga, a late replacement for Gonzalez.

Caracas fighter  Cañizales (26-1-1, 19KOs) has posted four wins since his lone loss of 2021, including a technical decision victory over undefeated Cuban Daniel Mattellon in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Teraji is focused and doing great preparation for this important fight at the BMB gym, run by his father Hisashi; and he demonstrated it in a training session open to the media.