Kenshiro Teraji is focused on his own fight but will scout the one that will determine his next mandatory challenger.
The two-division and reigning unified WBA and WBC flyweight champ will be among the most interested observers for Galal Yafai’s interim WBC 112lbs title defense against the 26-year-old Francisco Rodriguez from bp pulse LIVE in Yafai’s hometown in Birmingham, England.
Teraji is intrigued by the match-up, to where he’s torn on who will prevail.
“It's a match between Galal Yafai, the interim champion, and Francisco Rodriguez, who has been interacting with many Japanese people so far,” the 33-year-old Teraji told BoxingScene. “It’s a very interesting and exciting match. Yafai is also an Olympian and is currently very energetic, so I am paying attention.”
The winner will become the next line for the full version of the WBC title, which Teraji, 25-1 (16 KOs) will defend along with his WBA belt against Ricardo Sandoval, 26, on July 30 in Yokohama, Japan.
Teraji will attempt his second flyweight title defense and first as a two-division unified titlist. He was the lineal, Ring, WBC and WBA junior-flyweight champion before he moved up in weight in 2024. He claimed the vacant WBC 112lbs belt with an 11th-round knockout win over Cristofer Rosales in October in Tokyo.
That feat came seven weeks before Yafai, 9-0 (7 KOs), earned the interim WBC flyweight title in his biggest win to date. The 2020 Olympic gold medalist toppled the former IBF 112lbs titleholder Sunny Edwards inside six rounds in November at the very same arena.
Yafai’s first defense of the secondary belt comes against Mexico’s Rodriguez, 39-6-1 (27 KOs), a former unified minimumweight titlist and a bonafide flyweight contender.
“Both are diligent boxers,” acknowledged Teraji. “I think the difference between the fight will be who can stick to their style more. I don’t know who will win, but I think it will be a very intense fight.”
Teraji is 17-1 (12 KOs) in title fights across two weight divisions over eight years. Five months after his win over Rosales, he toppled his countryman Seigo Yuri Akui via 12th-round knockout to unify the WBC and WBA flyweight belts in one of the fights of the year.
The upcoming clash with Sandoval, 26-2 (18 KOs), will mark his third flyweight title fight in a little more than nine months.
“I’m very well prepared for the next bout, focusing on sparring,” he said. “It’s been a while since I faced a boxer who mainly fights in the US. Over the next month, I will get better and enter the ring fully prepared.”