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FIGHT WEEK
Kazuto Ioka and Joshua Franco will meet in a 115-pound title-unification bout on New Yr’s Eve in Tokyo.
KAZUTO IOKA (29-2, 15 KOs) vs. JOSHUA FRANCO (18-1-2, 8 KOs)
- When: Saturday, Dec. 31
- Time: 5 a.m. ET (predominant occasion later in present)
- The place: Ota Metropolis Common Gymnasium, Tokyo
- TV/Stream: Not out there in U.S.
- Division: Junior bantamweight (115 kilos)
- At stake: Franco’s WBA and Ioka’s WBO titles
- Pound-for-pound rating: Ioka, Honorable Point out
- Odds: Ioka 1½-1 favourite (common of a number of shops)
- Additionally on the cardboard: Hayato Tsutsumi vs. Pete Apolinar, featherweights; Ryuto Owan vs. Robin Langres, junior featherweights; Ryo Nakai vs. Kai Watanabe, junior lightweights
- Prediction: Ioka UD
- Background: Ioka and Franco will unify two 115-pound titles within the annual New Yr’s Eve present in Japan. Ioka has received six consecutive fights since he misplaced a break up choice to Donnie Nietes in 2018, together with a one-sided choice in his rematch with Nietes this previous July. The 33-year-old native of Osaka is arguably the second finest fighter from Japan, after Naoya Inoue. Franco is coming off back-to-back-to-back fights in opposition to Andrew Moloney in 2020 and final yr. The 27-year-old from San Antonio received the primary battle by a detailed unanimous choice, the second battle was dominated a no-contest (the results of an unintended head butt that injured Franco’s eye) and Franco received a transparent choice within the third battle. He could have been out of the ring since that ultimate bout, which occurred greater than 16 months in the past. Franco was elevated from secondary titleholder to full WBA champ when Juan Francisco Estrada gave up the title this previous August.
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