Kenshiro Teraji vs. Masamichi Satô 1 - the standalone IB RBR scorecard

With their announced rematch now looming a few months away.

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Kenshiro Teraji vs. Masamichi Satô, 12 rounds @ light flyweight

 

Round 1

Satô is taking his time, standing in front of Teraji and ducking under his jab to let it slide into his lumbar curve. Satô taking aim with his 1-2 but not really committing to it fully yet, getting a read on Teraji's movements. Teraji more active, circling with jabs and short combos, fluid, but himself not leaving first gear.

10-9 Teraji, close

 

Round 2

Satô is catching Teraji's jabs on his left forearm, then hurtling in with both fists clapped into either set of ears in wide arcs. Teraji seems a bit discombobulated by the sheer audacity of these attacks, taking a few backward steps and mechanically pawing a rote jab while gathering his thoughts. Satô then matches Teraji's pace and rhythm, scoring reach-in body jabs as things settle down at medium-long range and showing more discipline than in the first minute. Teraji gets his druthers up again, now trotting inside behind an incisive jab, both in singles and doubles. Satô counters with a nice short right hand after eating a few of those.

10-9 Satô, very close

19-19

 

Round 3

Satô is standing in with Teraji, happy to exchange jabs with him, but the moment the champion begins to falter and reverse his momentum Satô dives in with sweeping body shots. Teraji now ups his work rate, sending a teardrop right hand up and over behind the double jab while dancing clockwise on his toes. Satô times his orbits and gets Teraji backing straight up from a throwaway jab before lunging in with an overhand right, correctly predicting where Teraji will step and beaning him on the side of the head. Teraji steps in and parries some of Satô's jabs looking to land his own, but the last twenty seconds end up as just mutual stalling with nothing landed.

10-9 Satô

29-28 Satô

 

Round 4

Satô is really taking all the wind from the sails of this sparse partisan crowd, which is firmly in the corner of "The Amazing Boy" yet forced to accede begrudging grunts and golf claps in appreciation of the work of "Yabuki". Satô is playing matador with the hometown favorite, baiting him by drifting into the ropes giving up ground to his jabs (without staying near enough to actually be touched by most of them) and dodging Teraji's own frequently off-balance shoveling rights aimed for his body, only to vault forward and slash at the flanks of Teraji or wing a big looping right at the scruff, causing him to scramble and relent.

10-9 Satô

39-37 Satô

 

Round 5

This wooden clacking instrument somebody in the crowd has been using is getting very annoyingly distracting. Every few seconds, FFS. Anyway, in the ring Satô is still toying with Teraji, staying just off the full extension range of his jab and letting his own backside kiss the ropes & corners while leading Teraji along, counter-jabbing him in the stomach and sometimes ripping him with a surprise right hand rising off the hip and slamming down across Teraji's jaw when he gets impatient and blunders into the ambushes.

10-9 Satô

49-46 Satô

 

Eh. So far they're not setting the world afire. It would have been a hell of a thing seeing it unfold live, just because of how ridiculously lopsided a gimme it was perceived as being in Kenshiro's favor by most and the unexpected difficulty he's being given. I'll let you know if anything changes. I'm looking forward to round 9, peeps on Twitter said it was a proper donnybrook.

 

Round 6

Satô is completely disrespecting Teraji, roping out a come-get-me jab and then standing pat in front of him, drawing a right hand lead from Teraji only to charge in, bash the glove aside with his left forearm, then club Teraji on the face with his own right to shove him back on his rear heel and buy himself a moment to strafe left and send a cheeky jab into the bridge of Teraji's nose as he's twirlin about to square up. Satô not looking the 14-1 underdog in the slightest here; in fact if you tuned in just knowing the names and odds but not the fighters by sight you'd probably assume he was Teraji. Shiftless jabs trudging ahead by Teraji, getting countered with overhand rights and twisty-waisted 90's action figure left hooks from Satô to avoid the ropes, now outright eliciting cheerful applause from the crowd, having somewhat cuckolded Teraji by winning them over.

10-9 Satô

59-55 Satô

 

Round 7

Satô is throwing feints halfway toward his opponent's waist, then jerking away to slip the counter jab only to boomerang in with a chopping right on Teraji's jaw or a stiff jab between his teeth. Satô is sticking by the girl that he first brought into the dancehall, skimming his way around every inch of the square perimeter and letting Teraji exhaust his own energy attempting to pickpocket him only to get stung by hefty and well-timed if not especially speedy counter-punches. Teraji wobbled pretty badly with under a minute left, but it could have been down to a tangle of feet as Satô lost his balance a moment later as well. Nice shoeshine downstairs by Teraji, beginning to look either desperate or reinvigorated, finishing the round on the front-foot.

10-9 Satô

69-64 Satô

 

Round 8

Satô is taking anywhere between 2 and 4 sliding diagonal steps away from Teraji, and then braking and tilting in to swap jabs before drawing the pail-rope up the well thudding a right hand into the base of Teraji's neck. This pattern repeats an embarrassing (for Teraji) number of times. Satô is content to let Teraji have long turns jabbing into his guard and hacking at it with rights as Satô ducks and bobs near the ropes, goalposts aloft, then whenever Teraji slows down issuing him a painful receipt. One punch to five or six from Teraji - but unlike the champ actually getting through, and hurtfully.

10-9 Satô

79-73 Satô

 

Round 9

Satô is still up to his tricks but Teraji has grown sick of all his shit. Teraji now selling out, letting jabs snap his neck back sharply as he plows in and begins to insist on touching Satô's face with a 1-2 and then banging a hard left hook into his chest while pushing him into the corner turnbuckle. Satô darts straight at him and bashes his way free with a series of ceiling-slicing uppercuts and haymakers. Teraji no longer willing to step backward more than once in a go, now. They're in a tug of war of wills over the center of the ring. Teraji gets the best of it, landing several power shots on the face and body of Satô to sit him on the middle rope. Satô tries again firing his way loose but Teraji keeps his gloves whirring all over, not letting up and standing firm. Satô looks almost overwhelmed in the corner to end the round.

10-9 Teraji, aye, this was fun. Not a round of the year or anything, but quite good.

88-83 Satô

 

Round 10

Satô appears to be in trouble as Teraji picks up where he left off in the ninth, clobbering him with both hands. Satô either in a legitimately bad way or playing a convincing bit of possum here. Teraji with jabs, rights, and hooks on the face, several unanswered in batches. Satô finally sets his feet, bends his knees, and skewers his way out with a two-piece up top and then continues to noodle both arms into the face and midsection of Teraji. Huge right hand scores for Teraji, gasps from the crowd. They sense a stoppage coming. Teraji rushes in, and Satô gives hi a stiff-arm with his left, batting him onto the canvas. Ref correctly rules it a slip/push. Teraji unphased, just keeps ripping big uppercuts into the gob at point blank while driving his left shoulder into Satô's right. Then - like the flicking of a switch - the vessel that is Teraji empties, suddenly, of all vim & vigor. Something happens. One second he's pressing the attack, then, after one stiff jab makes his noggin do the Pez dispenser - Satô is driving him fully across the ring, into the ropes, chasing him along them, shredding away, sloppy but plentiful hooks, drowning Teraji with leather, ref looking on, nothing coming back from the champ, looking helpless, and.. waved off.

TKO10!!

 

What a bizarre last couple of rounds that was! Teraji seemed to have staged a pretty epic comeback and literally until the final 20 seconds it was he that looked firmly in command of an impending KO victory. Nothing in Satô's flurry to finish him off was all that spiteful; Teraji was just spent by that point. He put his all into the 9th and first half of round ten, and truly punched himself out I guess.