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The ultimate title battle of 2022 is formally set.
Kazuto Ioka wanted two tries and needed to strip right down to his birthday swimsuit to hit the 115-pound mark for his New 12 months’s Eve showdown with Joshua Franco. There was no such problem for the visiting Franco, who was roughly 114 ¾ kilos for his or her WBA/WBO junior bantamweight title unification conflict Saturday at Ota-Metropolis Common Gymnasium in Tokyo.
San Antonio’s Franco (18-1-2, 8KOs) will try his first title protection since he was upgraded to full WBA champ earlier this summer time. He beforehand held the secondary WBA ‘Common’ title, which he claimed in a twelve-round win over then-unbeaten Andrew Moloney in June 2020. He defended that model of the belt twice, each versus Moloney towards whom he fought to a No-Contest in November 2020 and outpointed of their trilogy conflict final August 14 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Franco has not fought since then, having waited out an in the end failed try and face lineal champion Juan Francisco Estrada, who vacated his WBA ‘Tremendous’ title in lieu of an ordered title consolidation conflict. Saturday’s bout marks his first professional battle in Japan, the place Ioka not solely holds regional benefit however whereas persevering with a convention he all however helped start.
Japan’s lone male boxer to win titles in 4 weight divisions, Ioka fights on New 12 months’s Eve for the eleventh time together with ten in his dwelling nation. The long run Corridor of Famer is 9-1 on the vacation, the lone defeat coming in a cut up resolution to Donnie Nietes for the vacant WBO 115-pound title in Macao, China.
Nietes relinquished the belt two months later, which Ioka claimed following a tenth-round knockout of Aston Palicte in June 2019. 5 title defenses have adopted, three of which have come on New 12 months’s Eve together with an eighth-round knockout of countryman and unbeaten former three-division titlist Kosei Tanaka in December 2020 to cement his Corridor of Fame credentials.
In his most up-to-date begin, Ioka soundly outpointed Nietes on July 13 to avenge his prior defeat to the previous four-division titlist from the Philippines.
The bout will air dwell on TBS-Japan (5:00 p.m. native time/3:00 a.m. ET). There isn’t any U.S. outlet carrying the battle as this goes to publish.
Jake Donovan is a senior author for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
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