Kenshiro Teraji vs Hekkie Budler 108 Pounds Title Bout Set
Kenshiro Teraji is set to defend his WBC, WBA & The Ring Junior Flyweight titles against Hekkie Budler.
The Ring has officially reported Kenshiro Teraji vs Hekkie Budler 108 Pounds title bout is official for September 18 and will take place at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
🥊 Announced: Kenshiro Teraji will defend his WBA & WBC light-flyweight world titles vs Hekkie Budler on Sept 18th in Japan. Also on the card, Junto Nakatani will defend his WBO super-flyweight world title vs Argi Cortes, plus Tenshin Nasukawa vs Juan Flores Aceves.
— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) July 19, 2023
In November 2022, Teraji was ordered to defend his titles against mandatory challenger Hekkie Budler. However, the latter agreed to a step-aside and allowed Taraji to enter negotiations with Jonathan Gonzalez. But then, the latter got injured and Kenshiro ended up facing Anthony Olascuaga.
Teraji stopped Olascuaga in the ninth round. Prior to that, he stopped Hiroto Kyuguchi in the seventh round. Kenshiro Teraji only lost once in his career against Masamichi Yanbuki back in September 2021.
On the other hand, Hekkie Budler is also on a three-fight winning streak and is coming off a first-round KO win against Wichet Sengprakhon. Before that, he defeated Elwin Soto and Jonathan Almacen.
Now, it remains to be seen whether Budler will be able to take those flyweight titles away from Kenshiro Teraji when these two collide on September 18.