FIGHT WEEK
Kazuto Ioka and Joshua Franco will meet in a 115-pound title fight on New Year’s Eve in Tokyo.
KAZUTO IOKA (29-2, 15 KOs) vs JOSHUA FRANCO (18-1-2, 8 KOs)
- When: Saturday, December 31
- Time: 5 a.m. ET (main event follows)
- Where: Ota City General Gymnasium, Tokyo
- television/stream: Not available in the US
- Assignment: Small bantamweight (115 pounds)
- threatened: Franco’s WBA titles and Ioka’s WBO
- Pound-for-pound ratings: Ioka, Honorable Honor
- the odds: Favorite Ioka 1½-1 (average of many stores)
- Also on the card: Hayato Tsutsumi vs Pete Apolinar, featherweight; Ryuto Owan vs. Robin Langres, junior featherweight; Ryo Nakai vs Kai Watanabe, lightweight
- Guess: University of Ioka
- Background: Ioka and Franco will unify the two 115-pound belts during their annual New Year’s Eve performance in Japan. Ioka has won six straight games since he lost to Donnie Nietes in a deciding match in 2018, including a one-way decision in a rematch against Nietes this past July. The 33-year-old boxer from Osaka is said to be Japan’s second best boxer, after Naoya Inoue. Franco will go head-to-head with Andrew Moloney in 2020 and last year. The 27-year-old from San Antonio won the first match by a near unanimous decision, the second was deemed undisputed (the result of an accidental headbutt that injured Franco’s eye) and Franco won clear decisive victory in the third battle. He won’t be out of the ring since the last match took place over 16 months ago. Franco was elevated from the minor belt to the official WBA champion when Juan Francisco Estrada relinquished the belt this past August.
