Door Opens to Kazuto Ioka To Become Champion Again
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 21 Jul 2024
Kazuto Ioka (L) and Kosei Tanaka.
Two weeks after losing his WBA belt in a unification against Argentine IBF champion Fernando Martinez, an opportunity has apparently opened for Kazuto Ioka to become world champion again at super flyweight.
This after the WBO super flyweight title match between defending champion Kosei Tanaka (20-1, 11KOs and Mexican challenger Jonathan Rodriguez got scratched in the supposed triple world championship card yesterday when Rodriguez failed to meet the 115 lbs limit at the official weigh in Friday morning.
The Mexican tried desperately but could not shed even a pound. Even as Tanaka expressed willingness to go on with the fight against an overweight opponent, the organizers decided to cancel the bout as Rodriguez was even above the 118 lbs bantamweight limit, meaning to say he was a virtual super bantamweight.
No explanation was made by the Rodriguez camp why they allowed this to happen on the eve of the Mexican's supposed most important fight, a title challenge no less.
What's clear was Tanaka was suddenly left without a challenger and had to be scratched from the scheduled Ohashi promotional card that saw two other Japanese fighters in world title fights- WBC bantamweight champion Junto Nakatani and WBO flyweight title contender Riku Kano.
Nakatani sensationally defended his title by a body shot 1st round knockout of Filipino mandatory challenger Vincent Astrolabio enhancing his reputation as Japan's second best fighter after Naoya Inoue. Kano failed in his quest to give Japan another world title losing by knockout to Californian Anthony Olascuaga.
Ioka used to be the next best Japanese fighter for most of the last two years until Nakatani rose up and became a three division world champion in the pace of Naoya. Kazuto losing to Martinez did not help in restoring his image particularly among Japanese fans.
But here comes an opportunity for Ioka to become world champion again and reboot his career on a buff, so to speak.
Ioka could challenge Tanaka for the WBO super flyweight title which he once held and even defended against Tanaka himself, winning by stoppage, in his previous successful title run.
Ioka vacated the WBO crown which Tanaka subsequently won only when Kazuto vied for and eventually won the WBA belt in battle against American Joshua Franco.
A rematch of their December 2020 fight would be great for both fighters and Japan boxing.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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