Kenshiro Teraji lost his WBA and WBC flyweight titles to Ricardo Sandoval on July 30 but is determined not to go quietly.

The 33-year-old will step up to junior bantamweight in search of more hardware when he faces IBF ruler Willibaldo Garcia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 27.

"It was not that I wanted to move up now but since the great chance came to me, I moved up to take this opportunity," Teraji (25-2, 16 knockouts) told The Ring through a translator. "I am very happy that since the loss last time, I can fight for the world title again. If I win this title, it will be my third weight division."

Teraji rebounded strongly after losing his unbeaten record to Masimichi Yabuki (TKO 10) in September 2021 when, six months later, he stopped Yabuki (KO 3) in their rematch. He later unified the WBA and WBC titles at flyweight before dropping them to Sandoval.

"I think I learned more from losing than winning," he explained. "I hope I grew more from the last loss. I think I am lucky that now there is an opportunity to fight for a third weight division. I hope to show that I got stronger and win this title bout."

Teraji joins esteemed countrymen Naoya Inoue, Junto Nakatani, the Tsutsumi brothers, Hayato and Reito and Taigo Imanaga on The Ring V card "The Night of The Samurai."

"I am glad to be chosen as one of the Samurai to represent Japan," he said proudly. "I hope I can show my skill, and people will think that Japanese boxers are very good by winning this bout in great way."

Victory will also take Teraji one step closer to another goal that he has.

"I want to fight with [Ring, WBO and WBO champion] Bam [Rodriguez]," he said. "If he wins [against WBA titleholder Fernando Martinez on November 22] and I win there might be a chance. So, for that reason too, I want to win this next bout in great manner to show my strength to make Bam want to choose me to fight against."

Garcia (23-6-2, 13 KOs), rated at No. 8 by The Ring at junior bantamweight, turned professional in 2017. He lost three of his first five but reeled off eight wins before narrowly losing to future WBC bantamweight titlist Alexandro Santiago (MD 10) and former two-time bantamweight beltholder Paul Butler (SD 10).

The 35-year-old won 10 fights to earn a fight for the vacant IBF title against Bibiano (D 12) last December and edged him in a rematch (SD 12) on May 23.

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