A kickboxer battered by Floyd Mayweather will return to boxing on a US-televised event with five world title bouts spread across two loaded cards from Japan.
The double-bill will stream live and exclusively in the U.S. early next year on ESPN+.
Floyd Mayweather vs Tenshin Nasukawa
Tenshin Nasukawa, a former kickboxing superstar and rising super bantamweight, aims to go 3-0 on the first portion in January.
Nasukawa carries on his professional boxing journey in an eight-rounder against Luis Robles Pacheco (15-2-1, 5 KOs) on January 23.
His run in boxing comes five years after Floyd Mayweather dropped him three times and beat him to a pulp on a RIZIN New Year’s Eve blockbuster.
The ESPN+ stream commences with an eight-rounder at junior featherweight between Juiki Tatsuyoshi (14-0-1, 10 KOs) and Yuki Yonaha (13-5-1, 8 KOs).
Kenshiro Teraji
WBC/WBA light flyweight world champion Kenshiro “The Amazing Boy” Teraji defends his titles against Venezuela’s Carlos Canizales at EDION Arena Osaka.
In the co-feature, Ukraine’s WBA flyweight world champion Artem Dalakian returns. He makes his seventh title defense against former Japanese flyweight champion Seigo Yuri Akui.
The world title twofer and additional undercard bouts will stream at 5 a.m. ET/2 a.m. PT.
Teraji (22-1, 14 KOs) is making his third defense as a unified world champion. It’s his 15th world title appearance spread across two reigns. Canizales (26-1-1, 19 KOs) has won four fights since the lone defeat on his ledger.
Dalakian (22-0, 15 KOs) has been a world champion since winning the vacant title via unanimous decision over Brian Viloria in February 2018.
Akui (18-2-1, 11 KOs) resurrected his career following a pair of TKO losses, having won six consecutive contests since 2019.
Ryōgoku Kokugikan
Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Tokyo will play host to a trio of world title showdowns on Saturday, Feb. 24, as Alexandro Santiago defends his WBC bantamweight world title against Japan’s pound-for-pound star Junto Nakatani.
The co-feature sees WBA bantamweight ruler Takuma Inoue attempt to retain his strap versus Filipino former world champion Jerwin Ancajas.
Title fight number three will be for the vacant WBO junior bantamweight world title. Three-weight world champion Kosei Tanaka attempts to conquer a fourth weight class when he fights Mexico’s Christian Bacasegua Rangel.
The world title tripleheader and an 8-round bantamweight tilt between Jonas Sultan (19-6, 11 KOs) and Riku Masuda (3-1, 3 KOs) begins at 5 a.m. ET/2 a.m. PT.
Santiago (28-3-5, 14 KOs) won the vacant WBC world title in July with a unanimous decision over future Hall of Famer Nonito Donaire.
Nakatani (26-0, 19 KOs) is a two-weight world champion who vacated his WBO junior bantamweight world title following September’s decision win over Argi Cortes.
Inoue (18-1, 4 KOs), the younger brother of Naoya Inoue, outlasted Liborio Solis in April to win the WBA world title.
An Inoue training injury delayed the fight from its original November date. Ancajas (34-3-2, 23 KOs), a Filipino southpaw, is a former long-reigning IBF junior bantamweight world champion.
Following back-to-back championship defeats to Fernando Martinez in 2022, he returned with a fifth-round stoppage over Wilner Soto in June.
Tanaka (19-1, 11 KOs) won world titles at 105, 108, and 112 pounds. He’s now making his second attempt to win a belt at 115. He has won four straight since a 2020 knockout defeat to Kazuto Ioka.
Rangel (22-4-2, 9 KOs), from Mexicali, Mexico, is unbeaten in nine fights dating back to 2019.
