By:  | July 20, 2023 9:35 am

Tenshin Nasukawa will make his second appearance inside the boxing ring on September 18th. He has been matched with undefeated Mexican Juan Flores Aceves at the Ariake Arena.

Tenshin will definitely have a disadvantage in terms of boxing experience. Aceves holds an impeccable 9-0 record with seven of those wins coming inside the distance.

By contrast Tenshin only made his debut earlier this year and is currently 1-0. But the Japanese fighter has years of kickboxing experience and faces a hand picked opponent who has never fought outside of Mexico before.

Star power

Tenshin faced 17 fight veteran Yuki Yonaha on his pro debut. Promoters are clearly trying to find him opponents with good records despite his boxing career being in its infancy.

The 24 year old demonstrated his marketability by beating Takeru in one of the most lucrative fights in Japanese combat sport history. That was his final kickboxing bout but there is no doubting Tenshin’s star power.

Boxing promoters are clearly hoping he will be an even bigger draw competing in t he sweet science. He will be sharing a fight card with two Japanese world champions in September.

World champions

In the main event Kenshiro Teraji (21-1) will be putting his WBA and WBC light flyweight titles on the line against Hekkie Budler. The South African is a multiple time former world champion at both 105 and 108lbs.

In the co-main event Junto Nakatani (25-0) will be defending his WBO super flyweight title. The undefeated Japanese star is taking on Mexico’s Argi Cortes.

The goal for Tenshin is ultimately to win a world title competing at super bantamweight. But he won’t be thrown in with any top ranked opponents at this stage of his boxing career.

While Aceves’ record is extremely impressive he weighed 119lbs for his last fight and will be moving up in weight here. His only notable win was a split decision victory over Yosvany Veitía, a Cuban who once won the world championships as a 108lbs amateur.

Tenshin famously faced Floyd Mayweather in an exhibition match at Rizin 14. He was stopped in the first round on that occasion but it doesn’t look like the former kickboxer will be matched with this calibre of opposition in his professional career.