After hurling a frankly unreasonable variety of mandatories his method through the years, the WBO is lastly freed from Kazuto Ioka. Yahoo Japan experiences that the four-division champion has vacated his tremendous flyweight title forward of a scheduled purse bid with Junto Nakatani in favor of pursuing a rematch with WBA titlist Joshua Franco.
Per Jake Donovan, stated rematch is focused for June.
Ioka (29-2-1, 15 KO) had beforehand expressed a want to problem Juan Francisco Estrada for the WBC belt, however it’s a must to respect his willingness to face Franco (18-1-3, 8 KO) once more. The final consensus from the boxing public appears to be that Ioka was lucky to get away with a draw after getting outworked by his youthful foe. As a lot as I might have cherished to see him struggle the red-hot Nakatani, I really feel like he’s earned the proper to decide on his battles at this level.
As for Nakatani, Andrew Moloney and Kosei Tanaka sit behind him within the WBO rankings. Moloney has stated that he needs a shot at Juan Francisco Estrada, which he’s technically acquired the rights to since he sits at primary within the WBC rankings, so we’ll see the way it performs out. I, for one, wouldn’t complain about seeing Nakatani struggle Tanaka.
