Kosei Tanaka will put his title in the line against Ryoichi Taguchi
3kingsboxing has learned that undefeated WBO flyweight champion Kosei Tanaka will face former unified light flyweight champion Ryoichi Taguchi.
This is a fight that is long overdue. In 2017, many boxing enthusiast wanted to see this fight take place when both held titles at 108 pounds, with the lineal championship at stake. However, after suffering two broken orbital bones in a grueling victory over the hard-hitting Angel Acosta, Tanaka ceased negotiations. He took one more fight four months later before ultimately moving on to flyweight to start 2018.
Meanwhile, Taguchi would defend his WBA and lineal status two more times before losing to Hekkie Budler in May of 2018. Now with Tanaka picking up the WBO flyweight title after defeating Sho Kimura in September 2018, he is ready to double-back and face Taguchi.
Tanaka (23), has been in high profile fights many times in his young career. He has already won titles in three divisions in just twelve professional bouts. This effectively ties the record previously set by Vasyl Lomachenko for the fastest fighter to achieve three-divisional titles.
The popularity of the Japanese based fighter, has grown tremendously with each victory.
Taguchi (32), is older with more experience and has also shared the ring with some of the best in the business. This includes current pond for pound phenom and WBA bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue.
The former unified champion will enjoy having both the height and reach advantage in this contest. However, this will be his first time fighting at the Memorial Center in Gifu, Japan. Additionally, this will be his first fight since the Budler loss ten months before.
The lower weight divisions historically have never gained much public attention. Although, they continue to make the most entertaining bouts which is why many boxing enthusiast love watching them.
Many fruitful with match-ups encompass this division and the winner could face one of the many talented champions in a mega fight later this year!
By: Garrisson Bland
