April 8th was a successful night for Japanese and boxing fans alike as several of the country’s biggest-known names greatly delivered in their respective bouts. The Ariake Arena bore witness to the rise of at least one new world champion in Takuma Inoue, and a new Japanese boxing superstar might be in the making after Tenshin Nasukawa’s pivotal debut victory against Yuki Yonaha. The bout between Kenshiro Teraji and Anthony Olascuaga formed the main event of the evening.
Unified Junior Flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji (21-1, 13 KO’s) headlined on the fight card with American prospect and contender Anthony Olascuaga (5-1, 3 KO’s). With Olascuaga having been a stand-in ― and a former sparring partner of Teraji ― for Jonathan Gonzalez (27-3-1, 14 KO’s) who had pulled out roughly two weeks before, Kenshiro Teraji was widely expected to win easily but the American pushed him all the way to the ninth round (out of twelve) before being stopped.
Overall, this result was largely anticipated, but Olascuaga showed immense promise by the way he brought the fight to the unified champion, and the American’s defeat is far from a blemish considering he was a substitute, and he pushed forth against arguably the best fighter in the division.
Kenshiro Teraji delivered in a match that seemed entirely up to him to win, and his dominant performance has seen him retain his titles and look forward to perhaps the continuation of his attempt to unify with WBO Junior Flyweight champion Jonathan Gonzalez.
Featured on the undercard was former kickboxing champion Tenshin Nasukawa’s (1-0, 0 KO’s) who made his debut. Nasukawa’s only experience as a boxer had been come through exhibition matches, with his exhibition bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr. counted as one of his most notorious matches he’s ever had ― regardless of it not having been a professional bout ― given the stoppage loss he suffered in the match to the American legend.
After a tremendously successful kickboxing career, Tenshin Nasukawa decided to transition towards boxing and made his long-awaited professional debut against Yuki Yonaha (12-5-1, 8 KO’s), an experienced Japanese fighter that had seventeen fights under his belt before facing the former kickboxing champion.
Despite the immense disparity between experience between the two fighters, it was Tenshin Nasukawa who showed to be a league above Yuki Yonaha. Excelling in virtually every area, Yuki Yonaha found Tenshin Nasukawa to be one of his toughest opponents yet in their Super Bantamweight bout.
Throughout the match, Tenshin Nasukawa dominated and virtually had an answer for every blow from Yonaha, while Yuki Yonaha struggled to make a positive impact with most his punches being blocked or missing, and him failing to cope with Nasukawa’s pressure or punches.
Yuki Yonaha was tough, despite being outstruck and outworked throughout the match, and though Tenshin Nasukawa couldn’t net a knockout or stoppage in his debut match, he virtually controlled the entire match from start from finish and it proved to be a resounding unanimous decision win for the former kickboxer.
Takuma Inoue (18-1, 4 KO’s), the younger brother of former Bantamweight undisputed champion Naoya Inoue, attempted to make a grab for his brother’s former belts against Liborio Solis (35-7-1, 16 KO’s) for the vacant WBA Bantamweight title. After twelve tough rounds, Inoue won his brother’s vacated title by decisively defeating Solis. He is now a world champion after first failing in 2019 against Nordine Oubaali in a unanimous decision defeat to the Moroccan.
Featherweight contender Reiya Abe (25-3, 10 KO’s) also proved to belong to the very best in his weight class with a classy victory over the experienced Kiko Martinez (44-12-2, 31 KO’s). and Abe can now count himself to indisputably be the best Japanese fighter in his weight class. He will now be closely looking at the Featherweight champions in his division for his first world title opportunity.
