Galal Yafai has fond memories of his last visit to Japan and on Saturday night he will aim to book a return trip.
Yafai (9-0, 7 KOs), 32, who won gold in the 52kg flyweight competition at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, fights Francisco Rodriguez Jr. (39-6-1, 27 KOs), 32, at the bp pulse LIVE Arena (formerly the NEC Arena) in his home city of Birmingham, England, on Saturday.
The winner of Yafai vs. Rodrigues for the WBC interim flyweight title will progress to face the victor of the clash between Japanese WBC world flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji (25-1, 16 KOs) and Ricardo Rafael Sandoval (26-2, 18 KOs), from California, in Yokohama, Japan, on July 30.
“If Teraji comes through and I win on Saturday then I would be more than willing to go to Japan and fight him at the end of the year,” Yafai told ESPN.
“I won an Olympic gold medal in Japan. I’ve got good memories of the place, and I enjoyed my time there. It’s a good omen my history there, and it would be nice to go back there and win my first world title in Japan after winning the Olympics there too.
“Japan is a great country for the smaller weights, it has a great tradition with some great fighters there at the moment, but I have to beat Rodrigues first before I can start thinking about it.”
Yafai looks more than ready for a first world title shot after stopping former IBF world champion and English rival Sunny Edwards in Round 6 for the WBC interim title last November.
But Yafai, who used to work in a car factory before his amateur boxing career took off, is aware he is up against an experienced opponent and is probably set for a longer night than his win over Edwards versus Rodrigues, who is dropping down a division to face the English boxer.
Rodrigues, from Monterrey, Mexico, took Junto Nakatani, now the world bantamweight No. 1 and WBC-IBF champion, to points over 10 rounds in 2022, and has not lost since.
In September 2021, Rodrigues was unanimously outpointed by Kazuto Ioka for the WBO world junior bantamweight title and he also lost unanimously on points to Donnie Nietes for the WBO world junior flyweight title a decade ago.
“He’s taken the likes of Nakatani and Ioka the distance, he’s been in with some good company and he was not stopped by those guys so he’s tough,” Yafai told ESPN.
“I’m motivated to win titles and I want to fight for a full world title, but you never know in this game what is going to happen next. I would like to think that if I beat Rodrigues I will fight for the WBC world title next, but I’m not the one making the decisions.
“I have no idea how long I will go on for, because you just don’t know with boxing. I try not to set long term goals. I would be lucky to get another ten fights over five years I’d say.”
The likes of Nakatani and Naoya Inoue have won multiple world titles in the lighter weight classes and Yafai has ambitions to box beyond flyweight.
But Yafai insists the goal is to first win a world title at flyweight before he starts calling for a fight against WBC world junior bantamweight champion Jesse Bam Rodriguez (21-0, 14 KOs), 25, from Texas.
“I definitely want to go up in weight, you’ve got Bam [Jesse Rodriguez] in the weight division above and he’s a terrific fighter, a big name, but I’ve got my eye on Rodrigues for the time being,” Yafai told ESPN.
“I want to be world champion at flyweight first, then I can look at those other fights at the higher weight divisions. It would be great to go up and fight Bam one day, but I’ve not even fought for a world title yet.”
Source: espn.com