Kenshiro Teraji scored a staggering last-round stoppage of Seigo Yuri Akui to unify the WBC and WBA titles at flyweight in a blistering clash in Tokyo, Japan.

With some 90 seconds remaining in a fight that had been violent, torrid and highly skilled, Teraji broke through with a combination that caused the referee at Kokugikan to intervene.

The stoppage looked premature, but it gradually became clear how groggy and weary Akui was and that he was all but out on his feet. He slumped on to his stool without complaint over what had happened, having given his all. He then wept on the canvas, a thick cut on his upper lip with his nose pouring blood.

The courageous Akui, 21-3-1 (11 KOs), aged 29, who had not lost since two defeats in 2018 – one came against the upcoming Junto Nakatani – made a solid start. From a firm base he fired straight shots and threw in combination, jolting Teraji’s head back with lefts and rights in both the first and second rounds. Teraji took a long early look at what was in front of him. They knew one another from sparring, but Akui started cracking Teraji with more right hands in the third. Another right rattled Teraji and caused him to reverse.

Teraji, 33, was busier in the fourth, and he filed work to the body, bringing his left hook into play.

They swapped big right hands in the fifth. Akui was starting to take more shots, but he was still throwing – and landing – plenty of his own, and putting them together well.

It seemed whenever Teraji landed, he was never far off paying a price for it as Akui punched back and then swarmed towards him.

The sixth and seventh were hard, gritty rounds in which it was hard to separate them. The question surrounded whether Akui could maintain the pace he had set from the start?

Theirs was a terrific fight, contested at a rapid pace. Teraji’s pesky jab was never far from Akui’s face in the ninth but the WBA champion was, at times, able to drive him back behind ones and twos.

There was a fluid look to Teraji’s work in round 10, as he mixed in his attacks to the body and head, but Akui’s technical efficiencies and sturdiness ensured he remained a constant threat, and he lashed in a left hook, causing Teraji’s hair to flick back in the air.

Teraji fought the 12th like his future depended upon it, and he started beating Akui with both hands. He poured forwards unrelentingly and Akui struggled to stay with him.

Almost halfway through the final round, Teraji again broke through, and while it did not seem like Akui was in imminent danger, the referee stepped in and held the weary Akui against the ropes, prompting Teraji to start celebrating.

Akui was ahead on two of the three scorecards going into the final round.

“The Amazing Boy” had his hand raised, but he had been pushed all the way.