Kazuto Ioka meets Joshua Franco in a world tremendous flyweight unification showdown in Japan on Saturday The normal New Yr present in Japan takes place on New Years Eve, and the Ota-Metropolis Normal Gymnasium hosts, as Kazuto Ioka places his WBO tremendous flyweight title on the road towards WBA ‘tremendous’ champion, Joshua Franco.
Ioka vs Franco is but to have a confirmed broadcaster within the UK or USA.
Ioka (29-2, 15 KOs) has dominated as world champion at minimumweight, mild flyweight and flyweight, however his first foray into the tremendous flyweight division was an unsuccessful one, as he dropped a cut up resolution to Donnie Nietes for the WBO belt in December 2018.
Since that defeat, the 33-year-old has gained six on the spin, together with the vacant WBO title instantly after his defeat to the Fillipino, stopping Aston Palicte in ten.
5 profitable defences have adopted, together with his final a rematch win towards Nietes in July, the place Ioka took a large factors win.
Ioka appears to be like to make a sixth defence of his WBO tremendous flyweight world title Photograph Credit score: Naoki Fanuda
Franco (18-1-2, 8 KOs) shall be a harmful opponent for Japan native. After three fights with Oscar Negrete, together with two attracts the Texan got here to wider prominence in the course of the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping Andrew Moloney on the best way to taking a decent factors win and the WBA tremendous flyweight title in June 2020.
A rematch ended unsatisfactorily as an unintentional head butt compelled an finish to proceedings in spherical two of their sequel, so a trilogy match was required.
Franco managed the motion in the principle, as he ran out a transparent factors winner in August final yr.
Franco holds the WBA ‘tremendous’ tremendous flyweight crown Photograph Credit score: Mikey Williams/Prime Rank
The 27-year-old has since been upgraded to ’tremendous’ champion standing, after Juan Francisco Estrada was stripped of the belt.
Prediction: This could possibly be a fascinating, high-octane match, however I simply barely lean in direction of Ioka in entrance of a house crowd, to come back via a detailed one on the scorecards.
Remaining Undercard
The remainder of the cardboard is fairly threadbare.
In eight spherical motion, Hayato Tsutsumi (1-0) ought to halt Pete Apolinar (16-3, 10 KOs) inside the gap at featherweight, and at tremendous featherweight, Ryo Nakai (5-1-1, 2 KOs) can take a factors win towards Kai Watanabe (8-0-1, 4 KOs).
At tremendous bantamweight, Ryuto Owan (9-1, 6 KOs) ought to get the higher of Robin Langres (11-4, 4 KOs) on the scorecards.
In six rounders, Satsuma Ito (1-0) can cease Wassana Kamdee (6-7, 5 KOs) at tremendous flyweight, because the Thai has been stopped in all seven of her defeats, and at tremendous welterweight, Kentaro Miyamoto (4-3, 2 KOs) can cease Taiga Ito (4-3-1).
Ayato Mochizuki (1-0) can rating a 4 spherical factors win at light-weight towards Kazuki Ogiwara (1-1, 1 KO), and Kantaro Nakanishi (3-1-1) can do the identical at tremendous bantamweight towards Akira Nakashima (2-4, 1 KO).