Kenshiro Teraji

Kenshiro Teraji (寺地 拳四朗), also known as Ken Shiro (ケンシロウ), is a Japanese professional boxer.

He retired in 2000, at the age of 36.

Teraji followed in his father's footsteps and accrued a 58–16 amateur record between 2007 and 2014.

Teraji made his professional debut in August 2014, winning a six-round unanimous decision (60-53, 60–53, 59–54) against Heri Amol.

Amol went down in round 4, after a right hand to the body.

Teraji won his first belt in October 2015, beating Rolly Sumalpong for the WBC Youth light flyweight title by unanimous decision (97-91, 96–92, 96–92).

During round 1, Teraji was dropped for the first time in his career but he adjusted and did enough to get the win.

On his next fight, Teraji went on to claim the Japanese national light flyweight title, beating Kenichi Horikawa with a unanimous decision (98-93, 98–93, 97–93).

In August 2016, Teraji claimed the OPBF title with another unanimous decision win (119-108, 119–109, 117–111) over Toshimasa Ouchi.

The bout was Teraji’s first 12-round fight.

He is a two-time and unified light flyweight champion, having held the World Boxing Council (WBC) light flyweight title from 2017 to 2021, and the unified World Boxing Association (WBA) (Super version), WBC, and The Ring light flyweight titles since 2022.

As of November 2022, he is ranked as the world's best active light flyweight by The Ring, the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, ESPN, and BoxRec.

Teraji is the son of Hisashi Teraji, a boxer who won the OPBF light heavyweight and Japanese national middleweight title.

Hisashi's sole professional loss came against future world champion Shinji Takehara.

In May 2017, Teraji was scheduled to face the reigning WBC light flyweight world champion Ganigan López, in what was his 10th professional bout and López's second title defense.

Teraji won the closely contested bout by unanimous decision, with two of the judges scoring the fight 115–113 in his favor, and the third judge scoring the fight a 114–114 draw.

Teraji was leading the fight on the scorecards going into the eight round, after which López managed to make a comeback.

Teraji later stated he was unsure of how the judges had scored the fight, which was the reason why he engaged in trading power shots in the final round, attempting to knock López out.

During the post-fight press conference, Teraji claimed he was dissatisfied with how he fought, saying he was too nervous in his first world title challenge to fight how he usually does.

Teraji first fight with López was broadcast on Fuji TV and had an audience rating of 9.5% in the Kantō region, with about 1.76 million live viewers in Tokyo area alone.

Teraji was scheduled to make his first title defense against the former WBC light flyweight champion Pedro Guevara on October 22, 2017.

Guevara had previously fought twice in Japan, having unseated Akira Yaegashi to claim the WBC title, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, and then losing his title to Yu Kimura in Sendai in a controversial split decision.

The fight was a mandatory title bout, scheduled for the undercard of Ryota Murata’s rematch against WBA regular titlist Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam.

Guevara started strongly but as the fight went on he started to slow down due to body shots, with the fight being scored as a draw after the first eight-round (78-74 Guevara, 77-75 Teraji and 76-76).

Teraji rallied in the second half of the fight and won another narrow majority decision.

Two of the judges scored the fight 115-113 and 116-112 for Teraji, while the third judge scored the fight a 114–114 draw.

During the post-fight press conference, Teraji called for a rematch with Ganigan Lopez.

Teraji was scheduled to defend his WBC light flyweight title for the third time against the #11 ranked WBC light flyweight Gilberto Pedroza, on December 30, 2017.

During a pre-fight interview, Teraji stated he wanted to keep having at least three fights a year, in order to maintain his match fitness, as the reason for taking this fight.

Teraji completely dominated the Panamanian fighter en route to a fourth-round technical knockout victory.

Teraji knocked Pedroza down twice in the fourth round, with referee Laurence Cole deeming Pedroza unable to fight, following the second knockdown.

López was scheduled to make the third defense of his WBC light flyweight title in a rematch with the former champion Ganigan López, on May 25, 2018.

Teraji won their first meeting by majority decision to become the WBC light flyweight champion.

The fight was scheduled as the co-main event to the Naoya Inoue and Jamie McDonnell match.

Teraji won the fight by a second-round body shot knockout.

Mid-way through the second round, Shiro landed a right straight to the body of López, with López being unable to beat the ten-count.

Teraji attributed his poor performance in their first meeting to the fact that he hadn't fought a southpaw up to that point, while he was more accustomed to fighting southpaw opponents in their second meeting.

Teraji was scheduled to mount the fourth defense of his WBC light flyweight title against the former IBF and IBO light flyweight champion Milan Melindo, on October 7, 2018.

He once again fought on the undercard of Naoya Inoue, as Inoue took on Juan Carlos Payano.

Teraji came into the fight as a 4/9 favorite.