Galal Yafai Seeks World Title on Familiar Stage
Galal Yafai cherishes special memories of his last visit to Japan and on Saturday night will seek to secure his return. Yafai (9-0, 7 KOs), 32 years old, who won the gold medal in the flyweight (52 kg) competition at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games, will face Francisco Rodríguez Jr. (39-6-1, 27 KOs), also 32 years old, at the bp pulse LIVE Arena (formerly NEC Arena) in his hometown of Birmingham, England, this Saturday. The winner of the Yafai vs. Rodrigues fight for the WBC interim flyweight title will advance to face the winner of the clash between WBC world flyweight champion Kenshiro Teraji (25-1, 16 KOs) of Japan, and Ricardo Rafael Sandoval (26-2, 18 KOs), of California, in Yokohama, Japan, on July 30.Yafai, motivated by his past successes, seeks to replicate his Olympic triumph on Japanese soil and conquer his first world title. Yafai appears to be more than ready for his first world title opportunity after defeating former IBF world champion and English rival Sunny Edwards in the sixth round for the WBC interim title last November.“If Teraji is victorious and I win on Saturday, I would be more than willing to go to Japan and fight him at the end of the year,” Yafai declared.
Galal Yafai
However, Yafai, who before his amateur boxing career worked in a car factory, is aware that he is facing an experienced opponent and probably a longer night awaits him than his victory over Edwards. Rodrigues, from Monterrey, Mexico, has proven to be a tough rival.
Rodrigues took Junto Nakatani, now the number 1 bantamweight and WBC-IBF champion, to the scorecards for 10 rounds in 2022 and hasn’t lost since then. In September 2021, Rodrigues was unanimously defeated by Kazuto Ioka for the WBO super flyweight world title and also lost on points to Donnie Nietes for the WBO minimumweight world title a decade ago.Yafai, with ambitions to compete beyond the flyweight division, insists that the goal is to first win a world title at flyweight before considering fights in higher categories. Yafai has his sights set on Rodrigues for the moment, with the goal of becoming a world champion in flyweight before thinking about other fights in higher weight divisions.“He went the distance against Nakatani and Ioka, he’s been in good company and wasn’t stopped by those guys, so he’s tough,” Yafai stated.
Galal Yafai
