I don’t have to remind the boxing hardcores to wake up well before dawn this Thursday.
An ESPN+ card from Japan with three world title fights?
Four of the world’s top flyweights in an informal tournament?
A title unification bout between Kenshiro Teraji and Seigo Yuri Akui in the main event?
Some of you have had this card marked down in the calendar for months. The rest of you should tune in because this event might offer more action, pound for pound and minute for minute, than any other boxing show we’ve seen this year.
You should also watch because I’ll be on the mic, alongside my good friend Corey Erdman. He’s the busiest play by play man in boxing, so if you’re an avid fan there’s a chance you’ve heard him somewhere. We’ve been doing ESPN+ shows together for about two years, but Thursday also marks *my* debut on TSN+ in Canada.
To answer your first question — no, we’re not going to Japan. We’ll be calling the action remotely from a studio here in Toronto. Saves us a lot of time and travel. Call time is just after 4am, so my main dilemma is deciding whether I’m waking up that early or staying up that late.
As for your second question… yes this is worth your time, so set your alarm, put a bottle of 5-Hour Energy on the nightstand, and prepare to join us.
Big picture, it’s a glance at how they do big time boxing in Japan, where features that North Americans view as sport-saving innovations are just the norm.
Folks are justifiably excited, for example, about the Riyadh Season WBC Boxing Grand Prix, and it is a thrill to see so many young fighters with a chance to earn some recognition and cash in direct competition. In Japan they do it every year, and several fighters on Thursday’s card are graduates of that country’s intensely competitive Rookie-of-The-Year tournaments.
And did I mention the title bouts?
They’re important. The best-on-best matchups that North Americans say never happen unless a sponsor with bottomless pockets offers enough money to make rival promoters forget they hate each other… they occur quarterly in Japan.
Thursday’s three title fights feature one of my favourite athlete archetypes — short and high-strung. The median height of the six fighters in action is 5-foot-4. That’s the mean, too. And since every single one of these guys is the same height, 5-foot-4 is also the mode.
In other words, we’re all going to wake up to a bunch of pocket-sized, hyperaggressive sharpshooters, setting a fast tempo and daring each other to keep up. If you’re groggy at 4am, you won’t be when the punches start flying.
The main star, of course, is Teraji, the 33-year-old dynamo who held the light-flyweight title before moving up to flyweight and winning the WBC belt. He says he aims to become undisputed champion before retires, so Thursday’s unification bout — Akui’s WBA championship is also at stake — is a natural next step.
If you’ve never seen Teraji fight, go down this YouTube rabbit hole and thank me later.
As for the commentary team?
Most English speaking boxing fans on the planet recognize Corey’s voice, but Thursday we’re reaching a broader audience of serious fight fans than I’m used to. Not just ESPN+, but TSN+ and Sky Sports.
If you’ve heard Corey and me on those ESPN+, Eye of The Tiger Management cards out of Quebec (next one is April 10, so save the date), then you know what to expect. Neither of us is a retired fighter, so we don’t have the standard play-by-play and colour commentator relationship. We don’t know what it’s like to trade punches with a world champion, and we don’t pretend to.
Our lack of pro experience isn’t an impediment. It’s a window into a different type of analysis. Some broadcast crews can put you into a fighter or trainer’s shoes. Corey and I focus on telling stories about fights and fighters.If you tune in and start feeling like you’re watching the fights with some really good friends who know a lot about boxing, that’s because you are.
Usually we’re doing it on a Thursday or a Friday night, but this time the party starts well before dawn.
As usual, you’re all invited.
Bring your own coffee.
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