Perhaps the most elevated corner of an isosceles triangle on Teiken Promotions' stacked & overall fascinating not-quite-New-Year's bash. The other two components of the world championship triple-header (Ryōta Murata vs. Steven Butler and Moruti Mthalane vs. Akira Yaegashi) look fun and unpredictable on paper, but this pairing has the highest combined p4p quotient and the most upside in store for the victor, and not just because it will be a unification. The mean age of these light flyweight titlists is 28½, as is the case with the middleweights - but I rate Teraji more highly than his countryman, and the Nicaraguan well above the Canadian ...and I feel like this one has the capacity to be far more steadily competitive (Murata will either maul Butler, or get overconfident in his own chin and caught with a couple of big shots to get him in trouble he can't recover from), Likewise, the battle of flyweight veterans may well be 50-50, but those guys are in their career twilight and neither is likely to end up unifying after this last glory ride. I have been a huge Gemelo stan for a while (both twins, actually, though Félix IMO has always been clearly superior to his brother René, a good fighter in his own right, and like Félix on a lengthy win streak buttressing against his last defeat, and for his own reward set to challenge Andrew Cancio for the WBA super featherweight title next month) - but also have been excitedly following the meteoric progress of Amazing Boy. He is showing very good form, consistently, against very good opposition. Alvarado will be the cherry on top - still maybe not an elite (can't stretch it that far, much of a fan as I am) but as "very good" as it gets. If the young Kyoto native can walk through Alvarado, then we have another legit monster emerging from Japan. If the Nicaraguan springs the upset or even pushes the youngster to his limits/exposes him to any degree, all the better. May the best champ win!
