U-NEXT has announced a July 20th title tripleheader at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan led by a secondary bantamweight title fight between Riku Masuda and Daigo Higa.
Masuda (10-1, 9 KO), whose only pro defeat came by decision against division standout Seiya Tsutsumi in 2023, is coming off a strong stoppage win over Nonito Donaire in March. Higa (21-3-3, 19 KO) initially announced his retirement after an 0-1-2 stretch saw him fall just short in consecutive title bids against Yoshiki Takei, the aforementioned
Tsutsumi, and Antonio Vargas, but this is boxing and these sorts of decisions don’t tend to stick.
The WBA “regular” title will be on the line despite Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez claiming the full belt last week; Teiken’s explainer breaks down the convoluted timeline involved, including Tsutsumi’s inability to fight Masuda due to injury and the uncertainty of whether Rodriguez will look to unify in his next fight or move up to challenge Naoya Inoue.
Speaking of Rodriguez, his former WBO super flyweight will get a new owner when former two-division champion Kenshiro Teraji (25-2, 16 KO) meets veteran contender Israel “Jiga” Gonzalez (32-5-2, 12 KO). Longtime light flyweight king Teraji enjoyed a brief reign as unified WBC/WBA flyweight champion before dropping a narrow decision to Ricardo Sandoval last July; he’d initially intended to challenge Willibaldo Garcia for the IBF belt in his super flyweight debut, but Garcia suffered an injury before fight night and subsequently ran out of time to avoid a mandatory defense against Andrew Moloney.
Gonzalez is one of the more battle-tested 29-year-olds you’re likely to see, but has consistently fallen short at the highest level. Four super flyweight title shots have resulted in losses to Jerwin Ancajas, Kal Yafai, “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, and most recently Rodriguez in 2022.
Seven pounds south, Shokichi Iwata (16-2, 13 KO) makes his inaugural WBC light flyweight title defense against undefeated Erik Badillo (19-0, 8 KO). Iwata stopped Jairo Noriega for the WBO belt in 2024, lost it to Rene Santiago in his first defense, then added the WBC belt to his collection by stopping former minimumweight king Knockout CP Freshmart a year later. Badillo, for his part, cruised past former titlist Elwin “Pulga” Soto in November.
