Riku Masuda faces Daigo Higa in Tokyo title tripleheader

Riku Masuda will defend his secondary WBA bantamweight title against Daigo Higa on July 20th at Tokyo's Ryogoku Kokugikan, headlining a tripleheader announced by U-NEXT, per Bad Left Hook.

Masuda is 10-1 with nine knockouts. His sole pro loss came on the cards against Seiya Tsutsumi in 2023. He most recently stopped Nonito Donaire in March. Higa holds a 21-3-3 record with 19 knockouts and had briefly retired after going winless across three consecutive title challenges against Yoshiki Takei, Tsutsumi, and Antonio Vargas. The WBA "regular" strap is up for grabs despite Jesse Rodriguez claiming the full belt last week. According to a Teiken explainer cited by the report, Tsutsumi was unable to face Masuda due to injury and uncertainty remains over whether Rodriguez will unify next or move up to challenge Naoya Inoue.

Teraji returns at flyweight/" class="internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2">super flyweight, Iwata defends light flyweight title

Former two-division champion Kenshiro Teraji takes on Israel Gonzalez for the vacant WBO super flyweight title. Teraji, 25-2 with 16 knockouts, previously held the unified WBC and WBA flyweight straps before dropping a narrow decision to Ricardo Sandoval last July. He originally planned to fight Willibaldo Garcia in his super flyweight debut, but Garcia suffered an injury and eventually faced a mandatory defense against Andrew Moloney. Gonzalez is 32-5-2 with 12 knockouts and has come up short in four previous super flyweight title bids against Jerwin Ancajas, Kal Yafai, Roman Gonzalez, and Rodriguez in 2022.

In the third title bout, Shokichi Iwata makes his first WBC light flyweight defense against undefeated Erik Badillo. Iwata won the WBO belt by stopping Jairo Noriega in 2024, lost it to Rene Santiago, then claimed the WBC strap a year later by beating former minimumweight champion Knockout CP Freshmart. Badillo is 19-0 with eight knockouts and defeated former titlist Elwin Soto in November.

The tripleheader takes place at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo with local start time details to be confirmed.

Reported via:

• Bad Left Hook — Riku Masuda, Kenshiro Teraji, Shokichi Iwata lead July 20th title tripleheader