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Inoue, Nakatani, Teraji: How Japan are dominating boxing's pound-for-pound list
This Wednesday Kenshiro Teraji returns to action when he defends his WBC and WBA flyweight titles against challenger Ricardo Sandoval, live on DAZN.
A two-division unified champion, Teraji is ranked ninth on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list. The magazine’s rankings reveal two other Japanese fighters in the top 10, with Naoya Inoue and Junto Nakatani rated at second and seventh respectively.
Japan has produced plenty of world champions over the years, but what are the arguments to including three Japanese fighters in the top 10 boxers currently active?
Multiple weight world champions
It is a lot easier to rank fighters pound-for-pound when they frequently move up the divisions, providing a better sample size of how they stack up against boxers at different weights.
When a fighter finds success just as easy at a new weight as their previous division, it becomes even clearer.
Inoue became just the second man to completely unify two divisions in 2023, having won titles at four different weight classes, whilst Nakatani has followed in his compatriot’s footsteps with belts won at three weights.
Like Nakatani and Inoue before him, Teraji has stepped up a weight class with ease.
Having won the WBC strap at super strawweight in just his 10th fight, Teraji went on to make eight successful defences between 2017 and 2021.
PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images
Defeated by compatriot Masamichi Yabuki in 2021, Teraji inflicted revenge upon his rival the following year, winning back the belt. Yabuki has since gone on to claim the IBF title at flyweight, indicating just how strong an opponent he was.
Having regained his status as a world champion, Teraji looked to add another belt to his collection. That opportunity would arrive in the form of another all-Japanese bout, stopping Hiroto Kyoguchi to unify his WBC strap with the WBA title at 108lbs.
After making three defences of his unified crowd, Teraji stepped up to flyweight to fight for the vacant WBC flyweight title against Cristofer Rosales. A late stoppage saw Teraji become a two-weight world champion, before ‘The Amazing Boy’ unified at his new weight with victory over Seigo Yuri Akui earlier this year.
Of course, it must be caveated that naturally smaller fighters will find themselves able to move up more weight classes than their bigger counterparts. That is because the gap between divisions is as small as 3lbs.
For example, there are five other weight divisions in between lightweight and flyweight, covering a range of 23lbs, whilst the jump between light heavyweight and cruiserweight is 25lbs.
Knockout power
At the lower weights fighters naturally lack the power to force stoppages, leading to eyebrows being raised when a boxer has a track record of ending fights early.
As such, a lighter pugilist with multiple knockouts is said to have more power pound-for-pound than the heavyweights that frequently end a contest with one punch.
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Inoue lives up to his nickname of ‘The Monster’ with 27 stoppages in 30 fights, whilst Nakatani’s ratio isn’t far off with 24 knockouts in 31 wins.
In his 26 fights Teraji has ended the contest early on 16 occasions, demonstrating his own knockout power.
Willingness to face other champions
The pound-for-pound list may purely be fantasy, but it stems from a desire to compare the best with the best.
Any fighter that is willing to prove they are the man in their weight class will fare well in the rankings, with any hypothetical thinking replaced by proven results.
Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP
Teraji has defeated four reigning champions, six former title holders, and two boxers that went on to win world championships.
That is a trait shared by Inoue and Nakatani. En route to collecting all the belts to become undisputed at bantamweight and super bantamweight, Inoue has defeated five former world champions, taken straps off eight titlists, and beaten two other fighters that would go on to win major belts.
Nakatani’s record is not quite as strong but still notable – twice he has beaten incumbents to become a world champion, having also defeated four former titlists and one future belt holder.
Domestic fights prioritised
Out of the 92 Japanese men to have won a world title, only 15 earned a championship whilst fighting outside of the Home Islands.
Inoue and Nakatani have both fought for world titles outside of their homeland, but Teraji has exclusively competed in Japan during his professional career.
Whilst in recent years fighters have been more willing to travel, or at least foreign opponents brought to Japan to compete for world titles, there is a trend of certain titles passing through the hands of many Japanese fighters.
Ultimately, Japan’s best fighters end up facing each other, with the victors able to consolidate multiple belts without leaving their country of birth. As such, Japan’s cream of the crop often has a strong argument to be included in the discussion for pound-for-pound fighters, especially when both Inoue and Nakatani have proven their skills abroad.
And they could soon take on one another in a potential super-fight. Nakatani has made plenty of noise about moving up to super bantamweight to face Inoue, who has reciprocated the desire of putting on an all-Japanese fight in 2026.
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